Seasons Of Love
by happyalvin
Summary: Katherine Swanson had a history with the FBI specifically the BAU and she didn't expect to fall for a certain boy genius when she transferred over to the BAU and Spencer Reid was the socially awkward boy genius who girls like Kit Swanson ever fell for. But here they were falling in love and so much more... S4 onwards Reid/OC
1. Chapter 1

Katherine Swanson or Kit as she preferred to be called and had been going by since the age of six stood in the BAU and watched as the agents went about their business, some of them were arriving whilst others were getting settled into the day's work with cups of coffee and catching up with co-workers to avoid the paperwork on their desks. Today was going to be Kit's first day at the prestigious Behavioural Analysis Unit and she was supposed to be meeting the Unit Chief, an SSA Hotchner however Kit couldn't see him anyway and she had no idea where his office was. As the few times they had met, Agent Hotchner had come to see Kit at her former unit or outside the bureau altogether. Kit had been to the BAU countless times but that was many years ago, well more like twenty years ago when she was a kid and the office where the unit was based had long changed from what she had known. It was more modern, an office to reflect the change in technology and times. The one thing that was the same was that there was still agents working here as the BAU was one of the most sought after assignments in the bureau. Deciding that she could no longer stand around looking like a lemming Katherine decided that she had to ask someone where she could find the seemingly elusive Agent Hotchner. So walking around Kit looked to find someone to ask until her eyes settled in a tall and rather lanky looking agent with brown hair making his was out the kitchenette and back to his desk. The agent in question looked fully invested in his coffee and made his way back to his desk, Kit followed him but waited until he had sat down before she stood in front of his desk. And moments later the agent looked up at her and Kit realized that he was actually very cute with his brown hair and puppy brown eyes.

"Hey there handsome I'm sorry to bother you and your cup of coffee but I'm looking for Agent Hotchner, you think that you could possible help me out?" Kit asked in a friendly tone making sure that she was smiling.

"H-Hotch? He's around somewhere…"

Kit watched as the agent stammered over his words clearly surprised that she had approached him and she found it cute the way he was reacting to her not to mention it was quite funny how uncomfortable she had made him with one sentence. But Kit knew better than to laugh as that would probably make things worse and the last thing she wanted to do was embarrass her new co-worker. At her last unit things hadn't exactly been easy, even before she had arrived Kit had somehow managed to make the wrong expression on them all and the last thing Kit wanted was a repeat of that. "Any idea handsome? Not that I don't have anywhere to be but a location to the whereabouts to Agent Hotchner's would be very helpful and I'd be eternally grateful."

"I couldn't say–"

"Agent Swanson, I'm glad that you could make it on such short notice." A voice interrupted and Kit turned to see Agent Hotchner come down a short flight of stairs from what she know took to be his office. The tall, dark haired and constantly stoic agent walked over to her and held his hand out which Kit shook in a confident manner.

"It's no problem at all Agent Hotchner."

"Please call me Hotch."

"Only if you call me Kit then." Kit replied as she detested being called Katherine, it was a very nice name and her parents had gone to an awful lot of effort to name her that and it suited her in a way. People often said that she looked like a Katherine, however she much preferred to be called Kit as she thought it was much better suited to her personality much to her mother's dismay.

"Okay, well if you'll follow me to my office Kit we can talk some more." Hotch began as he turned his back and made his way back towards his office and Kit would have followed straight away but she had business to finish with her new friend.

"Thanks for all your help you've been a doll, see you later handsome." Kit said turning to back to the agent she had been talking to, giving him a cheeky wink which caused him to turn a shocking shade of red. Now Katherine couldn't help but quietly laugh at that before she turned once more and followed Hotch into his office, shutting the door behind her and taking a seat. This morning Kit hadn't been nervous, she had been calm and collected not to mention a bit excited but now sitting here in Hotch's office, Kit was now nervous. Kit knew if her mother could see her now, she'd probably laugh her ass of because she always used to say that Kit didn't know the meaning of being nervous.

"Thank you for coming in this early Kit, did you bring a go bag with you?"

Kit nodded and gave the said go bag in her hand a little shake. "I did and I just want to thank you once again for giving me this chance, it's one thing being here in the early days of the BAU and to now be working here."

"What does your stepfather think about you being here?" Hotch asked and Kit took a baited breath, she knew it was only a matter of time before her stepfather came up considering who he was. Kit wasn't too surprised as her stepfather and his position in the FBI seemed to constantly follow her around like it was her damn shadow. Kit was so used to it that she was beyond the point of getting angry whenever someone brought it up.

"I haven't told him yet but I will eventually, it's that for most of my career people naturally assume that I've got to where I am because of his influence and position in the bureau and I wanted to do this own my own. I know my stepfather will be very proud and supportive of me once I tell him but whilst we keep our personal relationship separate from work, I worried that given his past history being a BAU team leader he may have tried to pull strings if he learnt that I wanted to join the unit. I just want you to know Hotch, that's not what I'm about. I have made a conscious effort over the years to keep my work and home life separate because I want to be judged on my own merit and skills as an agent not just because my stepfather is the director of the FBI." Kit explained as that was her big dirty little secret that her stepfather was Jack Flicker; Director of the FBI and former BAU team leader. Jack had married Kit's mother almost twenty years ago, way before he had become the director but that didn't stop the rumours that he had helped Kit get into the bureau given her age when she had been recruited.

Hotch nodded and Kit wasn't couldn't read him too well as he seemed to be a pretty aloof person based on her previous encounters with him but she was sure he was convinced by her statement. "I'm glad to hear that because you'll get no preferential treatment here Kit."

"I'm not expecting any, which is why I'd prefer it if my stepfather's position in the bureau wasn't mentioned to anyone in the unit because as far as I'm concerned it has nothing to do with my being in the BAU, for the time being at least. If a time comes where the team and the unit need to be informed then I will tell them." Kit stated.

"Agreed." Hotch replied before pausing for a brief moment. "Would you like to meet the rest of the team? I haven't gotten round to telling them about your arrival but they'll be grateful to have you here."

"I'd love to." Kit said as she got up from her seat and she followed Hotch into the conference room where the rest of the team were waiting and introductions were soon made. Several sets of eyes were set upon her including the agent that Kit had met earlier and he swiftly avoided her gaze when their eyes met. Poor thing, Kit had probably freaked him out but it was kind of funny that they were going to be working in a closer capacity than what Kit had first thought. She knew she was going to have to apologize for embarrassing him later on when she got a free moment.

"Everyone I'd like you to meet Agent–" Hotch began until an older looking Italian man who Kit knew from her past stood up with a surprised yet bemused look on his face. Dave Rossi was an old friend of her step-fathers and Kit had known him for about close to twenty years now.

"–Well I'll be damned Kit Swanson." Rossi said as he stood up from his seat in the conference room and made his way over to hug Kit, who had to put down her go bag to hug him. "Do you still go by Kit or is it Katherine now?"

Kit let out a heartfelt laugh as she let go of Rossi and gently slapped his shoulder. "You really must be getting really old if your asking me that old man, you know that it's always Kit, I know it's been a while Dave but you know how much I hate being called Katherine."

"You two know each other." A woman with a friendly face and long black hair asked and Kit nodded her head as she resisted the urge to grin like cat because she was going to be working with the infamous Dave Rossi. It was like Christmas had come early for Kit.

"Oh yeah, we go way back..." Rossi replied answering the question of a tall dark haired female agent who seemed to pick up on the fact that Kit and Rossi seemed very friendly and familiar with each other. Kit grinned as Rossi turned his attention back over to her. "So what are you doing here kiddo? Last time I heard you had left the innocent images unit to go into crisis negation and you were causing quite a bit of waves there…"

"Agent Swanson is joining our team." Hotch announced much to the surprise to the rest of the team except Rossi who had a rather smug look plastered on his face.

"No offence Agent Swanson." The muscular African American agent asked Hotch and Kit took no offense as she knew that her sudden appearance on the team without the rest of the team's knowledge wasn't going to go down too well at first. She was used to people being not happy to have her around and Kit was more than used to ignoring it in order to get on with the job. "Why didn't you tell us you were looking to bring a new member to the team."

"I wasn't but then I heard Agent Swanson was looking to leaving hostage negations and come to the BAU I saw an opportunity, her background in hostage negotiations and her speciality in sex offender cases in particular children in relation to her time in the innocent images unit and her time the D.C. field office would be a useful addition for the team." Hotch explained and the team seemed to accept this as a blonde hair woman with blue eyes came forward and held out her hand towards Kit with a welcoming smile.

"Well it's great to have you here Agent Swanson, I'm Jennifer Jareau but everyone calls me JJ and I'm the teams communications liaisons which basically means I deal with the media and the local police agencies. " JJ said and Kit took the offered hand and shook it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you JJ and please call me Kit, like I said to Dave it's always just Kit. I tend to avoid going by full name of Katherine unless I really have to and generally then it's only when I'm getting into trouble with my parents or dealing with some kind of formalities. Even then I'm not too much of a fan of being called by my first name but I will answer to it." Kit replied with a bright smile, she wanted to make sure she got off to a good impression with her new co-workers. As like Dave had said, she had caused a bit of waves at CNU when she had joined as people weren't happy about the director's step-daughter joining the unit and it had made her whole time there rather problematic.

"I'd also like to introduce you to Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss and Dr. Spencer Reid." Hotch said continuing with the rest of the introductions point to the African American agent first, followed by the dark haired female agent and then lastly the agent who Kit had spoken to earlier. And she was surprised that the awfully cute agent she had made very uncomfortable was a doctor as he looked way too young to be a doctor. But then again this was coming from the woman who was recruited by the bureau straight out of college when she was twenty years old so who was she to make assumptions?

"It's nice to meet you all and it's nice to see you again Dr. Reid." Kit said with a smile, which seemed to set Dr. Reid off again and everyone else seemed to pick up on that.

"You know each other?" Hotch questioned.

"We met briefly earlier and Dr. Reid was very helpful." Kit explained not going into details as the least she could do was spare Dr. Reid from further embarrassment. In the space of five minutes Kit had probably embarrassed him at least three times and they had barely been introduced! Moments later the greeting were pushed to the side as the team got to work on their newest case which was a series of murders in Oklahoma in which all the victims were female who had been sexually assaulted before having their heads decapitated. They were flying out to Oklahoma and an hour later, they had all boarded the jet and on their way to Oklahoma.

"Took you long enough kiddo, I always said you belonged in the BAU." Rossi said after the team had gone over the case again on the jet and threw about a couple of theories. Kit couldn't help but laugh as recalled the years of badgering that Rossi had sent her way when it came to joining the BAU.

"I know and I never listened, kept telling you that you were a crazy old man." Kit murmured in agreement.

"Have the two of you worked together before? Rossi you said the two of you went way back." Emily questioned.

"Not exactly, I've know Kit here for close to twenty years now and back in the old days Kit used to run around the BAU like it was a playground." Rossi explained. "The BAU has always been in her blood and I always knew she'd end up here so it came to my surprise that after her first two years in the bureau she ends up in innocent images unit."

"That's true and then a long story short I ended up here but I'll promise to fill you in later. But tell me about you? Here I thought you were living the dream in retirement with your fancy writing career with millions of books sold and all the book tours. Then the next I hear your back at the BAU, that's a first Dave as I can't remember anyone leaving the BAU to retire and then come back a few years later."

"I had some loose ends to tie up so I asked to come back and the bureau agreed because the unit was a man down after Gideon left." Rossi explained, referring to Jason Gideon. Like Rossi, a legendary profiler and downright famous in the bureau as everyone knew who he was until one day he abruptly quit the BAU.

"Yeah I heard about Gideon, it's a shame given everything that he'd accomplished but I see the unit hasn't suffered." Kit said quietly nodding her head.

"You worked with Gideon?" Morgan asked.

"Not worked exactly but I knew him growing up as my stepfather used to work in the BAU and when I joined the bureau I took a couple of Gideon's classes and he attempted to recruit me into the BAU and I took the classes to become a profiler. But an opportunity arose for me to join innocent images but we stayed in touch and he told me there was always an opening for me at the BAU. I just never felt like I was ready to do so until now, too many things to do before then." Kit explained leaving out several key details that she wasn't willing to get into now.

"How long have you been at the bureau now Kit? What is it now eight years?" Rossi asked.

Kit laughed as she punched Rossi lightly in the shoulder. "Like I said your getting old, it's been seven years Rossi, I'm sill twenty seven. But it's almost eight years."

" That's right, your birthday isn't until March."

"You joined the BAU at twenty?" Morgan asked clearly impressed.

"Kit's pretty smart, almost as smart as Reid so the bureau pulled a few strings to get her into the academy a few years early." Rossi explained pointing in the direction of Reid. "He joined the bureau when he was twenty two and has an IQ of 187 an eidetic memory, can read 20,000 words a minute not to mention he has B.A's in psychology and sociology as well as three PhD's in mathematics, chemistry and engineering."

"Wow, that is amazing… I was just smart enough to graduate high school was I was sixteen, no where in the leagues of you Reid. But three doctorates? That's impressive and that's coming from the girl with the one undergraduate degree." Kit said as she was absolutely floored by Reid's academic achievements and at such a young age, she knew there was no way that Reid was older than her. It also explained how Reid was so young to be a doctor. It seemed the good doctor was not only handsome but a genius to boot.

"Hadn't you retired by the time Kit started the bureau?" Morgan asked Rossi.

"Oh yeah he had but Rossi and I go way back, he's a friend of the family so we've know each other for abut twenty years now and we run into each other when my mom throws some party. Rossi has always been in my life someway or the other in fact he was one of the main reasons why I wanted to join the FBI." Kit said and both her and Rossi laughed.

"You give me way to much credit kid."

"Seriously this man is the reason why I've gotten so far in my career, Rossi was always giving me advice and would always be willing to help me out. When I was sixteen years old I told him that I wanted to join the bureau and Rossi was one of my biggest supporters when my parents were adamantly against the whole thing. Then when I spoke to him about the idea I was tossing around the idea of heading to crisis negotiation for a while after numerous cases of mine with sex offenders resulted in hostage situation. I figured working there would be good for a while, give me some experience a be a good tool to have under my belt. So Rossi took it upon himself to make sure that I knew what I was getting myself into and gave me advice and taught me everything I needed to know about the crisis negotiation unit and he wrote me this glowing letter of recommendation. I almost cried when I saw it, I even have it framed in my living room as it moved me _that _much." Kit explained as she glanced over to Rossi, he had never been like an uncle or a family friend to her when she was growing up. David Rossi had always a friend to Kit and she appreciated his advice on a lot of things, whether it was about her career or a good bottle of wine.

"It didn't do you the world of good as I heard they gave you a hard time down there." Rossi noted and Kit dismally nodded in agreement.

"Why?" Reid questioned finally speaking up, Kit had noticed that the good doctor had kept awfully quiet after they finished going over the brief on the plane.

"Various reasons. I was twenty five when I joined CNU and because of my age none of them took me serious and a lot of people had a problem with that. They tended to focus on that instead of what I could do and what I could bring to the unit. It's understandable but when it gets to the point it's interfering with the job it's not okay. There was also the fact that I was the only females agent in our office in a unit primarily dominated by men. Those were the two main issues and I had to fight a lot to get any respect from them which was barely given to me but it's never stopped me before. My dad says what I lack in male anatomy, I make up for plenty in other things…" Kit explained with a casual laugh.

"How is your father? It's been a few years since we've spoken but last time I heard he had been promoted to Colonel and you and your siblings had taken to calling him The Colonel." Rossi asked changing the subject as before it would go back to how Rossi and Kit knew each other as before they had taken off Kit pulled him aside to explain that the team were to be kept in the dark for the time being about her stepfather being the director.

Kit nodded and at the mere mention of her father, she burst into a wide grin as she was very proud of her father and he's achievement. Her father after all was one of her best friends. "He's good but he's no longer The Colonel now as Papa Swanson has been promoted twice since the last time you last saw him. For the last two months he's been Major General Swanson so he's now The General now. Every time we think he's close to retiring he gets promoted but the corps is his life and if he's happy then I'm happy…"

"So Swanson, why sex crimes as your speciality?" Morgan asked.

"It's simple really, I think that sex is supposed to be one of the best parts of life whether it's for reproduction or recreational use, it's supposed to be pleasurable and not be used as a weapon against men, women or children regardless of age, sex, race or choice of partner." Kit explained and Morgan nodded in understanding.

"Good day to join us then." Hotch noted.

"Just think of it like your first day of school Kit." Rossi assured her and Kit thought it was best not to mention that she usually skipped the first day of school.


	2. Chapter 2

This was a big day. Kit knew it and she had to be on the top of her game as she wanted to make a good impression as she knew that her colleagues would determine her worth by what she brought to the table today. Kit had to prove to Hotch that he had made the right decision by bringing her to the team and she had to show the rest of the team that she had the right skill set to be here. Kit knew that she had nothing to prove to Rossi, but to the others she had everything to prove. So when they arrived in Oklahoma the team immediately split up in order cover more ground, JJ and Reid went to the police station, Morgan and Rossi went to the medical examiner's office whilst Hotch, Emily and Kit went to the most recent crime scene, the alleyway in which the last body had been found or rather. Naturally minus the head. Upon arrival the alleyway was filled with several cops, several from the crime scene unit and as they climbed out the SUV, a man dressed in the suit with dark blonde hair, grey eyes who was about ten years older than Kit made their way towards them as they crossed the crime scene tape. Kit took this to be the detective in charge of the investigation who had put in a request for their assistance on the case.

"You must be from the behavioural analysis unit, right? I'm Detective Miller."

"Agent Hotchner and these are Agents Prentiss and Swanson." Hotch said as he shook hands with Detective Miller and Kit offered a polite and professional smile as she started to look around. There seemed nothing special about this alleyway, bar the obvious headless body but Kit knew she couldn't write this off straight away as there could be a reason why the body was dumped here.

"Thanks for coming, I really appreciate you guys coming out here."

"No problem. Still no sight of the head?" Emily questioned and Det. Miller just shook his head

"We've got officers out looking but so far there have been no reports of depicted heads so far, not that I'm expecting for someone to just randomly turn up after the body has been dumped. If this guy is keeping to his pattern then he'll dump the head in the early hours of tomorrow morning." Det. Miller explained and Kit had to admit that this was a very interesting case for her first case with the BAU. Decapitation was not something she had come across much up until now, she had naturally seen countless dead bodies but most of these tended to still have their heads attached to them.

"So the UnSub kills the victims in one location but then proceeds to dump the body and head in two different locations, this suggests that the UnSub is clearly organized, as he's dumped each body in a different location in the middle of the day with out being detected. There could be a reason why the UnSub is dumping these bodies in particular alleyways, it could have some significant reason behind it." Hotch began and Det. Miller nodded his head.

"Well these alleys are known to be well known areas for the working girls to come and take their johns. But none of our victims have records for solicitation and they aren't known to vice squad." Det. Miller stated and Kit frowned as there had to be a reason why the UnSub was dumping the bodies in known areas of prostitution.

"What I want to know is why is the UnSub cutting off the head and taking it with him just to get rid of it hours later? Why not leave it with the body or just not cut it off in the first place if he's not even going to even keep it?" Kit questioned as she looked around the alleyway. "Even though it's part of his signature it doesn't really make much sense at the moment but for some reason it makes sense to him…"

"True, the obvious reason for taking the head would be to keep it as a trophy but the UnSub doesn't keep hold of it." Hotch noted.

"He returns them, eighteen hours after he takes it, makes you wonder what he does with them in that time." Detective Miller added and Kit couldn't help but agree with him, this was a whole new experience for her as she never had to deal with anything this bizarre or anything lacking with heads when she was in innocent images or crisis negotiation.

"Maybe he feels like he has to take it with him? Some kind of compulsion, perhaps obsessive compulsive disorder? Or it could be symbolic for some reason…" Emily reasoned.

"Perhaps although I think there's more to it, this is all a bit messy as he takes the head only to return it but why cut off the head in the first place if your just going to return it later? We're missing something here, there's an explanation for this we just don't know what it is yet. But whoever our UnSub is they've got a lot of anger inside them and judging by the bodies that have been piling up, I don't think he's done yet or close to letting go of all that anger…" Kit noted.

"The dead headless bodies didn't already suggest that to you Agent Swanson?" Detective Miller questioned in a sarcastic manner.

"Obviously but that aside, you've got to have a lot of rage to cut off someone's head with a axe, why not do it with a chainsaw?" Kit replied with a small smile before carrying on her line of questioning. "It would much faster and easier then cutting it off with an axe not to mention there would be a cleaner marks on the neck from the decapitation… I think he's getting a release out of doing it but I don't think it's a sexual release as the rape was enough without the decapitation so this whole beheading thing could just be an outlet for his even more of this pent up anger the UnSub has built up inside him."

"So we're looking for a sexual sadist with severe anger issues who is wielding an axe somewhere in the city. "Emily noted and Kit slowly nodded as she continued to walk around the crime scene.

"Kit, what are you thinking?" Hotch questioned.

"The UnSub targets women with red hair, right? And if he had a type he was targeting we'd think the victims would represent someone in his life like his mother or a girlfriend." Kit listed as tried to make sense of everything, pacing and walking around helped her to gather her thoughts. It was something that drove her mother crazy and Kit's mother often claimed that you could see where Kit had worn down her carpets with all her pacing.

"But the victims were all different ages and economical backgrounds and so far there's nothing that ties them all together." Emily said following Kit's train of thought. "So there is no particular type, just women all together."

"Exactly and we've already established that our UnSub is organized because of the way he disposes of the bodies but if we're right about his victims then he's also disorganized too if he's picking these women at random, choosing the first red head he see's. There's a sense of organized chaos to all of this, bar the cutting of women's heads we just need to figure out what we're missing here but I think he's building up his courage until the UnSub finally feels ready to actually kill the actual person that his rage is directed towards. …" Kit noted.

Half an hour later the four of them including Detective Miller went back to the station to regroup with the others so they could discuss what they had come up with and try and come up with a profile. Morgan and Rossi had been told by the medical examiner that all three victims had been drugged were unconscious at the time of the sexual assaults and decapitations. Whilst Reid had been working on a geographic profile with help from JJ and they had manage to get it down to a ten mile radius but so far nothing else, they had an incomplete profile and not much else to go on as Garcia was looking into missing women with red hair, so the rest was coming down to guess work and tossing around ideas. The profile they had come up with they had distributed to the police but Kit still felt that they were missing something, she didn't know what it was but it felt like it was right in front of Kit and she just couldn't see it.

"Bored?" Reid asked as he sat down in the seat opposite Kit's who was playing with a Rubik's cube and not getting too far with it. She was never any good with these and yet she always carried one with her just in case she was bored with nothing to do. In this case she needed to do something whilst she was thinking instead of pacing around the station like a madman.

"Not at all handsome, I have oodles of patience, usually stuff like this drives me crazy as I used to be one of those kids who bounced off the walls if I was sitting around not doing anything for too long. But I have had years of working on the whole patience thing as you have to have patience to work in hostage negotiations otherwise you'll drive yourself crazy and end up getting someone killed. So sitting around trying to come up with an idea or waiting for something to happen is nothing new to me." Kit replied looking up and giving Reid a smile.

"Can I ask you something Katherine?" Reid asked and Kit couldn't help but frown at the use of her first name.

"Of course you can handsome but only if you call me Kit, I thought I told you that I don't like being called Katherine." Kit said finding that her nickname for Reid was quickly sticking to him and to his credit Reid had stopped blushing most of the time she called him handsome.

"Why crisis negotiations?" Reid asked and Kit wasn't expecting that question but none the less she would answer and so she straightened herself up and put down her Rubik's cube.

"Honestly? Growing up in the environment I did instilled a sense of duty and service in me and from about the age of fifteen or sixteen I knew I wanted to join the bureau. I moved to crisis negotiation because whilst I loved the work I was doing in innocent mages, I wanted to be out in the field more. Doing something and believing that I was really making a difference so I transferred over to crisis negotiation. The bureau is all about life saving and life taking unless you have to but over there we were really big on resolution though talking." Kit explained. "So what about you handsome, why the BAU?"

"Profiling was really the only career I had ever thought about and Gideon had heard of me and one day when I was twenty one he personally picked me to join the BAU and I've been here ever since I graduated the academy." Reid commented as he took the Rubik's cube that Kit had discarded and solved it in a matter of seconds and Kit laughed as Reid handed her the Rubik's cube fully completed.

"I've known you less than twelve hours Spencer Reid and you just amaze me, you know that right? Is there anything you can't do Reid?"

"Um… follow cooking instructions and take part in any physical sports." Reid admitted which caused Kit to smile as Reid was really growing on her and she found herself really liking him. Sure he as socially awkward as a fourteen year old boy, he didn't have the greatest of people skills and tended to go off tangent into and fixate on subject manner. But she found it rather endearing in a weird way as Reid wasn't like most people Kit knew and she liked that, not to mention he was very sweet and not to mention very handsome which made her nickname for him oddly fitting.

"Question… Good doctor why would you decide to chop off several women's heads?" Kit questioned as she picked up the case file and went through the crime scene photos again before looking up for Reid answer and the look of horror on his face made her laugh. "Hypothetically, of course."

"Maybe he's cutting the heads off so he doesn't feel guilty afterwards? Or he can't bare to have them looking at him even in death."

Kit picked up the Rubik's cube and mixed it up before starting on it again. "Perhaps, but then he could have just shut the eyes… Why cut the head off take it for eighteen hours? That is the one thing that I can't wrap my head around if you'll pardon the pun…"

"Why do you think the heads are important?" Reid asked.

"Rape is all about power and if the UnSub was just a serial rapist then he wouldn't just be cutting off the victims heads. I think that's what we're missing, the heads must mean something to the UnSub or must stand for something." Kit began as she got up off her seat and over to the board where all the photos of the victims were. "Why would an UnSub target specifically females?"

"Typically to replace a loved one lost or revenge."

"So unless he's lost three different loved ones who had red hair that the latter idea you have about revenge is what I'm starting to think may be the motive behind all of this. Maybe our UnSub has had his masculinity challenged or been spurned by a red headed woman and this is attempt at getting revenge but he doesn't have the courage to take out on the woman or women who have undermined him."

"Yet."

Kit nodded in a grim manner as she knew the UnSub wasn't going to stop unless they made him stop by catching him and getting him off the streets. "Exactly and if we don't figure this out soon, more bodies will start building up…"


	3. Chapter 3

Sitting on the jet Kit took another sip of her coffee as she reviewed the case file, the team were on their way back to Quantico after spending two days in Oklahoma. The team had to call it a night after they had no leads and Garcia was still trying to find a way of connecting the suspects apart from all being redheads and looking into any assaults on redhead females leading up to the murders. They had a profile but no suspects. The next day is when the team caught a break when the third head was found in the middle of a road in the early hours of the morning. Based on all the sites of where the three heads were found, Reid discovered that it formed a triangle and after many painstakingly long hours Garcia had a name for them; James Griswold. Who fit the profile as not only did he live bang in the middle where all three heads were found but also had a record for assaulting two red haired women; the first in his late teens and the second when he was twenty-three. Griswold was white male in his late twenties with a dead end job and was a loner with no friends and his boss was a red hair woman who constantly belittling him. The team had managed to get to Griswold's office in time as the station got a call to say that a man fitting Griswold's office had just walked in wielding an axe.

For Kit the whole thing had been an interesting new learning experience, this profiling gig was going to take some minor adjusting to but she was determined to make it work. Getting assigned to the BAU was a big deal and Kit wanted to make this assignment work.

"Good job today Kit." Hotch told Kit as he made his way back to his seat from making himself a cup of coffee, she couldn't help but smile as it was practically the best thing she could have been told by the big boss himself. She hadn't screwed up on her first day on the job, Kit had done her job and had impressed the boss at the same time. It felt good to have someone acknowledge her contribution without a sarcastic comment about her stepfather following shortly after.

"Thanks Hotch." Kit replied as she caught Rossi's eye and noticed he was laughing quietly to himself as he sat directly opposite her with another one of his smug looks on his face. "What is it old man?"

"Jack would be proud, I know I am."

"Yeah he will but god knows how my mom will react when she finds out that I'm working in the BAU, she hasn't exactly been happy with my career choices so far. You remember how she freaked out when I announced that I was applying to the academy…" Kit said with a shake of her head as she thought back to when she was sixteen and telling her mother she was going to one day join the FBI. That conversation didn't go down well and Kit could remember her mother get worked up about it for weeks. Then it all came up again when the bureau recruited her out of college. Just thinking about that made Kit's ears wince.

"And how is the family? It's been a while since I last saw them all." Rossi asked and Kit couldn't help but chuckle at the mention of her family. They were certifiably insane and yet somehow they all managed to function rather well as they kept the dysfunction contained outside the four walls of Kit's mother and step-father's house.

"Good, all three parents are the same as usual… Gabe is on a dig in Cairo but he told mom he was in Texas until Sammy revealed otherwise so you can only imagine how my mom is dealing with that. Sammy and Lex are going to graduate high school next summer and are already arguing about where to apply for college with mom and Maddie is in her third year of med school and dating a real toolbox at the moment. I already know that it won't last so I'm just waiting for the inevitable phone call from my sister when the she finally realizes what a loser he is and dumps him..."

"Chaos as always, I see." Rossi joked.

"You know us Rossi, we can't seem to function under anything less." Kit noted in amusement as she spotted Morgan getting up and walking away from where he was to sit next to Rossi.

"Finally had enough of Reid beating you?" Rossi guessed.

"Something like that…" Morgan mumbled much to Kit's amusement so she got up and made her way over to the chair that Morgan had just recently vacated. "Swanson, I wouldn't do that if I was you."

"Why not?" Kit asked with a sceptical tone.

"Pretty boy here is from Vegas and you know what they say, house always win."

"Unbelievable, another thing that Dr. Reid is good at, well I'll give it a whack just as long as it's not poker." Kit said as Reid began to deal out the cards as she got herself comfortable. "I'm not allowed to play poker."

"Why not?" Reid questioned and Kit knew she was going to regret telling him this but she figured she owed him for all the embarrassment that she had caused him this morning.

"I've been banned from playing until my dad retires and the way he's going, I'll probably never get to play poker again, so we'll just have to play gin rummy. I hope that's okay with you handsome…" Kit told Reid as he took back the cards and began shuffling them again before dealing them out again.

"Kit your twenty seven years old and you let your father tell you whether or not you can play poker or not?" JJ asked sceptically as the others were not sure whether to laugh or not.

"Trust me I know it sounds silly given that I am a grown woman but my dad is a general in the corps and I've learnt over the years that Papa Swanson's word is final no matter how old I am. Especially when he catches you playing poker in the rec room on base with a couple of petty officers at age fourteen, then there was this big incident at Christmas a few years ago with one of my brothers and pops put his foot down." Kit explained as she shook her head in amusement, despite the fact she could no longer play poker she took comfort that her elder brother Gabriel couldn't do so as well.

"On base? You're a military brat?" Emily questioned and Kit slowly nodded her head. People seemed surprised that she grew up in a military environment, as Kit seemed the furthest thing from being a military brat apparently. Kit never really understood that as she had loved the way she grew up. From an early age her father had taught Kit along with her brother Gabriel and sister Maddie to love their country and they did. Kit spent more time living on the bases so she had a real sense of pride for the men and women in the armed services and the uniform they wore. Everyone always assumed because of her dad was in the military that he was going to be a constant hard ass, some rigid man who disciplined his children to within a inch of his life. That wasn't the case, sure her dad was a marine but he was no real hard ass once he came home and changed out of his uniform. He was just her dad. Sure there were rules and chores like any other family and Kit was raised to address adults as Sir or Ma'am and was well aware that her behaviour could have an impact on her father's career. However her dad was a typical dad when he wasn't working, he like taking them to the park and playing baseball and doing other dad stuff. The General once explained it to Kit as whilst the military was a huge part of his life, it didn't define him. He was both a soldier and a father and he took an oath to do each other them to the best of his ability.

"Yeah, I've spent most of my life on a military base, I was even born on one and I stayed there up until I was eight when my parents got divorced but two years later I asked to go back. I missed living on base and most importantly I missed my dad so I stayed with him."

"Don't take this the wrong way but you don't seem like the military type Swanson." Morgan commented and Kit laughed as most people didn't take her for being the kid of someone in the military, let alone a daughter of a General in the Marine Corps.

"It's not like living in a military academy Morgan it's kind of normal I guess, like a gated community if you'll imagine. You can have a lot of fun at bases and there are so many things you can do and the people there get you. I met some great people there who understood what I was going through because it is hard, moving around constantly never knowing how long your going to stay in one place. That's partly why I returned, the world outside the bases my dad was stationed at was weird for me and I didn't adjust back to the outside world until I left for college. Even to this day I still consider it home, so I often stop by to visit my dad at work whenever I'm feeling nostalgic." Kit replied, whilst it wasn't normal or the most conventional thing for her co-workers, for Kit that was the definition of normal. Being a military brat was all she had ever known. Kit had never really had a normal life considering her upbringing and family, as such she didn't confine herself to the normal social conventions. The only thing normal about Kit was the fact that she worked for the government but even then her job wasn't your typical 9 to 5 desk job.

"Where'd you go to college?" Reid asked.

"Dartmouth, class of 2001. Best four years of my life if I'm being completely honest although I couldn't legally drink until the year after I had graduated." Kit replied as she put down a card to pick another one up. "What about you the good doctor? Where does the genius known as Spencer Reid go?"

"Cal-Tech." Reid replied.

"I should have known, big brain needs to go a big school and it seems like the only the best was good enough for the boy wonder known as Dr. Spencer Reid." Kit said in amusement as she glanced away from her cards and looked over to Reid. In the ten hours in which Kit had known Reid, she liked what she saw as he was different, no doubt about that but a good different. He was interesting not to mention he could already recall how she liked her coffee. Plus Kit liked idly tossing out random comments that she knew would get a reaction of the good doctor. She liked making him fluster and seeing his cheeks tint pink, it was cute.

Reid smiled as he laid his cards down on the table. "Gin."

"Any of you up for going for a couple of drinks tonight?" Kit offered as she picked up the cards, giving them a quick shuffle before dealing them out between Reid and herself. Kit looked around as the rest of her team looked around and Kit rolled her eyes. "I'm buying…"

"Sure." The chorus of Kit's fellow co-workers came at once.

"Oh? So it's only when I offer to pay that you all agree to come… I get it, the new girl has to earn her stripes and what better way to start by spending her pay check on drinks for her new co-workers." Kit retorted as she looked up to see everyone else trying not to laugh. Working at the BAU was certainly going to be interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

Kit's first six weeks in the BAU were pretty interesting, whilst she was still the new girl and would be for a while she felt like she had finally found her feet not to mention her place in the group. With each case Kit was getting more confident in her abilities as a profiler and earn the trust of her co-workers and starting to make real and no doubt lasting friendships with the team. She had even earned the nickname Goldilocks from Garcia as the technical analyst claimed that it was down to her hair being so long, shiny and gold looking. Nicknames were nothing new to Kit as she preferred to go by the shortened version of her first name so she took it into her stride. She just took it to be a sign that she been accepted by the team which took a weight off her shoulders as the last thing she wanted was to be working on a team who didn't trust her and didn't want to work with her. Like her time spent in crisis negotiation before she transferred over to the BAU, but thankfully that didn't see to be the case. Everyone seemed welcoming and Kit had struck up a companionship with Reid, the two of them stuck together as they were the youngest members on the team and very close in age. Kit really liked Reid, there was something about the handsome genius just interested her.

"Congratulations Reid or should I say Uncle Spencer?" Kit teased as she left the hospital with Reid. JJ had gone into labour whilst the team were helping Reid work on a case of a young boy who had been killed twenty years ago that had been bothering Kit's favourite boy genius. They had been working on a different case and when that case was over most of the team had returned to Quantico but Reid had stayed behind, along with Morgan and Rossi as he suspected that his father was responsible for the death of a boy named Riley Jenkins who died twenty years ago despite the fact he hadn't seen him in almost twenty years. It turns out that Reid had known the boy in his childhood and that his father hadn't been responsible in his death. Once that had been settled Reid had returned to visit JJ and she had asked him to be the godfather to her son, along with Garcia who was named godmother.

"Thanks Kit, although I'm not really sure why JJ and Will picked me, with the Reid effect still in full force." Reid said and Kit watched his head crinkle as he tried to come up with a reason for his newfound role.

Kit had been with the BAU for over six weeks now and she was slowly picking up on things such as the 'Reid effect' which was a term used to explain why dogs and young children didn't like Reid that Kit found hilarious because who couldn't like Reid? Kit found the idea of someone disliking the boy genius hard to believe but apparently it was possible. "That's just random kids, pets and Clooney for some weird reason but this is JJ's son and you're his godfather so of course he's going to love you because you're going to be in his life and the two of you will get used to being around each other."

"I guess…"

"Hey! Enough with the self-doubt, you're going to be a great godfather Spencer Reid and if you don't believe that then trust me. Henry is a very lucky kid to have you and Garcia looking out for him." Kit assured Reid, who nodded more to make Kit happy then to affirm her statement. Kit made a mental note to work on Reid's self esteem with him as he was unable to see why he was practically the best possible candidate for being a child's godfather. "You okay now handsome?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Reid questioned.

"I've been worried about you recently Reid, I know we haven't know each other long but nevertheless, we're friends right? Or at least I think we are…" Kit explained as she linked her arm through Reid's as they stepped into the elevator. She certainly thought of them as friends as the two of them spent an awful amount of time together in general when they were working and then when it came to food; when Reid wanted to try out a new restaurant Kit would always agree to come not only because she loved food, but she liked Reid's company and it was kind of hard to say no to those gorgeous brown eyes of his.

"Of course we are Kit." Reid assured her, which made Kit feel slightly better about what she was about to do as it was no doubt going to startle the good doctor.

"Great! Which why your coming home with me tonight!" Kit announced.

"–Wait? What?" Reid spluttered as he looked at Kit in shock who was trying desperately not to laugh at his reaction as face flustered pink. She found Reid to be incredibly cute when he got flustered and Kit did get a real kick out of flustering him.

"Spencer, I may not know everything about you but what I do know is that this Riley Jenkins case and this thing with your dad has been taking it's toll on you. I know that you've been having trouble sleeping and I say this as a friend but you look terrible. So I'm bringing you home with me, where you are going to get a decent night's sleep." Kit instructed sounding like a mother chastising her child, which Reid clearly wasn't as that would be weird.

"Kit I appreciate it but I don't need you take care of me because I'm not a child." Reid retorted.

"I know your not a child Reid, I know perfectly well that you are twenty seven years old because if you haven't remembered we're the same age!" Kit said as the door of the elevators opened and the two of them walked into the car park and the look on Reid's face told her that he wasn't convinced.

"We have work tomorrow."

"And you know perfectly well that Hotch said that it's been a long couple of days for the team and unless an urgent case comes up we have the entire day off tomorrow Dr. Spencer Reid. Which means we can go sleep for a few hours and in the morning I will drive you to your apartment where you will finally be rid of me. So stop trying to argue with me handsome, I've gotten this all figured out." Kit said as she dragged a reluctant Reid over to her car.

"Katherine, why are you doing this?" Reid questioned using Kit's face name yet again, he had a tendency of doing that when he wanted to have a serious conversation with her. Kit no longer saw the point of correcting Reid about it as he seemed stuck in his way about thee whole name thing. "I'm pretty sure you have more important things to be doing?"

"Like what? I'm kind of avoiding my family at the moment because seeing them involves talking about my job which I'd rather not do, all my other friends have jobs and their lives to get on with. And besides we are friends Spencer and I care about you, that is why I'm doing this now get in the god damn car!" Kit said ignoring the use of her first name to instead open the passenger side door of her car and giving Reid a look that told him, either he get in the car willingly or she push him in forcefully.

"Kidnapping a federal agent is a crime." Reid pointed out and Kit had been expecting that, when friends with a genius of epic proportions she knew that he would have an answer for everything. But whilst Reid had an eidetic memory, that it no way could compete with Kit's stubbornness. Once she had an idea about something, she would let it go and she was not backing down on this particular subject. No matter how many degrees Reid had, Kit and her one degree was not going to let him try and slither his way out of this one.

"I'd rather be arrested than see you collapse of exhaustion and don't even think of arguing with me about this Reid as I am armed. Not to mention I know that you would do the same thing for me if I were in your shoes. So no more arguing Reid just get in the god damn car." Kit quipped, which must have done the trick as Reid got into the car without another word. The drive over to Kit's apartment was a relatively quiet one until they arrived at her apartment twenty minutes later. Kit was worried about how quiet Reid was being as it was very rare for the genius boy to be sitting still for a long period of time without him sprouting off something. This only made Kit worry more as whatever had happened in Vegas must have shaken him up a bit. Hopefully a good night's sleep would help remedy that. "Okay Dr. Reid, there are two bedrooms down this hall but I would suggest going for the one on the right as that one has a bathroom and there should be something in the draws for you to sleep in. My room is right here next to the kitchen if you need me, any questions?"

"Do you have roommates?"

Kit shook her head. "Nope just little ole' me."

"Then why three bedrooms then, it seem impractical Kit?"

"My eldest brother used to live with me until a couple of months ago when he moved in with his girlfriend and I don't know whether I want another roommate again. Then my youngest brother and sister sometimes crash here and when they aren't here eating me out of house and home then they double as guest rooms for occasions such as this." Kit replied trying her best not to laugh but it was kind of hard not to as Reid was adorable. Almost had a million question, just as curious as a kitten.

"You have siblings?" Reid asked in surprise and Kit smirked, she knew that Reid was well aware of the fact that she had siblings. But he was pretending like he didn't. It may have worked on somebody else but not Kit as she knew he never forgot anything he learned.

"Yes and don't think I can't see what your doing here Dr. Reid so I won't go into it now, however I will tell you all about them and anything else you want to hear about my so called life tomorrow once you have gotten some sleep." Kit instructed as she pulled Reid down the hallway and past the open floor kitchen and living room to the bedroom on the right hand side. "There are clean sheets already on the bed and clean towels in the bathroom, so you needn't have any problems. There may even been a book lurking around here somewhere if you need something to help drift off to sleep, I can't promise it will be anything interesting."

"Thank you."

Kit couldn't help but smile back at the smile Reid was giving her, his sincerity and cluelessness was adorably sweet for the genius that he was. "There's no need to thank me handsome, this is what friends do for each so sleep tight and get some well deserved rest."

"Goodnight Kit." Reid said giving her a small smile

"Night Reid, I'll see you in the morning." Kit replied giving Reid a kiss on the cheek before leaving the room and shutting the door on her way out. For a socially awkward guy he could sure be difficult when he wanted to, Kit thought to herself as she made her way to her bedroom.


	5. Chapter 5

Reid woke up to find that he wasn't in his own bed at his apartment nor was he in a hotel room before he remembered that he was in one of the guest rooms at Kit's apartment. Getting out of bed, he walked over to the door and opened it before proceeding to walk down the hallway where he heard the clambering of different things. When he arrived at the kitchen, he found Kit standing by the stove murmuring to herself as she appeared to be cooking pancakes.

"Morning Kit."

"Reid! Your up and you look so much better." Kit brightly began, surprising Reid with how enthusiastic she seemed to be. "Pancakes and coffee? I am making Papa Swanson's famous pancakes and trust me when I say that they'll knock you off your feet, oh and help yourself to coffee."

"Thanks…" Reid replied as he ventured further into the kitchen and before he could ask Kit where a mug was, she held one out to him with a wide grin on her face. _Just like a magician._ Pouring himself a cup of coffee Reid moved back round so he could sit at the breakfast bar and watch Kit cook. She wore a grey Dartmouth t-shirt and grey and green pyjama pants with her blonde hair in two french plaits and when she caught him looking at her Kit stuck her tongue out at him before continuing cooking. "How long have you been up for?"

"Half an hour or so? I got a call which woke me up and that was that." Kit explained as she began dishing out the food and within minutes the two of them were eating and Reid had to admit that the pancakes were pretty good. Especially with a fruit salad and maple syrup, which Kit loaded her pancakes heavily with. If Morgan were there, no doubt the older agent would lecture them about the damage they were doing to their bodies with all that sugar. "You okay now Reid, feel like talking now?"

"I don't know…" Reid began not sure of what to tell Kit as although they were friends he wasn't sure if telling her about himself was a good idea. It wasn't that he didn't trust her because he did. They just hadn't know each other that long and he didn't know whether he could deal with her being disappointed in him as he really liked Kit. She had this thing about her and she always made him feel important and more than just a genius but rather like an actual person; her friend.

"How about I talk for now? And when you feel ready you can talk?" Kit questioned.

"Sure." Reid replied nodding in agreement and before he knew what was happening Kit grabbed his hand and dragged him into her bedroom. Like the rest of Kit's apartment, her bedroom was pastel colour and had a very calm and natural feel to it. Kit took Reid by surprise when she pushed him onto her bed and moments later she joined him.

"Okay… where to start, well you did ask about my siblings last night so I guess we'll start there. I'm the second eldest of five children; I have an older brother Gabriel and a younger sister Madeline from my parents marriage and two younger twin siblings from my mom's second and current marriage; Samantha and Alexander." Kit began as she grabbed a framed photo from one of her bedside table and handed it to Reid. "Gabe, Kit, Maddy, Sammy and Lex, the fab five as we call ourselves… My mom is the only one to call us by our full names no matter what, where as my dad and my stepfather switch between the nicknames and our full names except they call my brother Alex, whilst the rest of us just call him Lex."

Reid took the photo and examined it closer; the five of them looked happy and comfortable with each other. Kit looked very similar to her full brother and sister but all of her siblings shared the same eye shape and Kit had the same ears as both her brothers and the same lips as her sisters. However Spencer noticed that her and her younger brother had the same grin and her youngest sister shared the same blonde hair colour as her whilst the rest of her siblings had a darker hair. They looked like a happy family.

"You seem really close."

"We are despite the fact that Gabe is in Cairo working on a dig site but we all talk all the time, Maddy is currently at John Hopkins in her third year of med school so we see her more than we do Gabe. But we make an effort to see each other especially with the twins as they're younger than us and as I'm the closet one around I drop in unexpectedly to see them at much to my mother's annoyance. She thinks I'm a bad influence of them for god knows what reason…" Kit said which caused her to laugh.

"What about your parents?" Reid questioned and he could sense he might of hit a nerve as he watched as Kit's nose crinkled together and he wasn't sure whether it was in distaste or not.

"My dad is great and we get on like a house on fire and I always have time for Papa Swanson as he is my best friend. Take from that what you will as I know Freud would have had a field day with that. Then my stepfather Jack is a great guy and he's been so good to me and all my siblings that I see him as a second dad and I occasionally call him dad."

"You conveniently let out your mom." Reid pointed out and Kit smiled.

"I can never get one past you, can I Dr. Reid? My mom is intense and very high maintenance to put it lightly but my step dad Jack is good for her, he gets her to relax a little when she starts going over board and into what Lex calls 'Psycho Mom' mode. And I'll admit that sometimes it's hard to love her but she's my mom and despite everything I love her more than anything."

"It sounds like you and your mom don't get along too well." Reid noted and he couldn't help but notice that Kit was clearly choosing her words before she continued.

"Like most kids, when my parents got divorced they kept telling me it wasn't mine or my brother and sister's fault and as I got older I blamed my mom and a part of me still does, plus we butt heads very frequently…"

Reid looked at Kit who was looking at the photo of an older man in the wearing a military service uniform who he took to be her father based on the information that Kit had told him. "Why?"

"Now that is an interesting story Dr. Reid. I was born to the now Major General Daniel Swanson and his then wife Cornelia Swanson at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, can you believe? She was a week late and every time she thought she was in labour, she'd be told she wasn't and she'd get sent home. Next time she had contractions my mom ignored it till she realized it was time and she had to push, so lo and behold I was born on base." Kit said she tugged on one of her french plaits.

"You were born at Quantico? And you later became an FBI agent based at Quantico is amazing, the chances of that happening… " Reid uttered in amazement and for once not even being able to calculate the statistics.

Kit smiled wearily. "Yep, my dad thinks that too where as my mom thinks over wise… Gabe was born at the corps base in Hawaii and Maddy was born at Camp Pendleton, we moved around a lot because of my dad's postings. I think it was about six or seven times when my mom finally had enough, I was seven at the time."

"And they got divorced." Reid slowly said as he noticed the look in Kit's eyes, despite the fact that her parents got divorced twenty years ago he could that she still wasn't over it.

"Yeah, Gabriel was ten and Maddy was five. It's not to clear to me what was going on at that time, Gabe remembers it more than I do but we moved back to D.C whilst my dad was stationed overseas in Germany for two years. During this time my mom met my stepfather and married him."

"On your first case with us, you said that you eventually went back." Reid said recalling the conversation Kit had with the rest of them about growing us on a military base. Reid remembered her telling them that she went back because she missed her dad but also because she had difficulties adjusting to life not a military base.

"It was just after the twins were born and as terrible as this sounds, it was Lex and Sammy being born that made me want to leave D.C."

"Why?"

"After they were born all I could think about was my dad being all by himself, with none of his children. There are only two things in this world that matter to my dad; being a marine and his children. Mom had the three us, a new husband and two new kids and my dad had no one and I remember realizing this one day and bursting out crying and I couldn't stop, I just cried and cried… She didn't want me to go but I was adamant that I wasn't staying and that I wanted to go back with my dad so she let me go. My dad was reassigned to Quantico for another two years so it wasn't too bad until he was reassigned to Camp Courtney in Okinawa…" Kit stated with a weary laugh.

"You lived in Japan?"

"Only for eighteen months and from what I can recall it wasn't too bad and my Japanese is still quite good but something must have happened to me whilst I was there because when we came back to Quantico I had to be tested for school and before I knew it I was thirteen years old and starting the tenth grade."

Reid tried not to profile Kit as they were friends and the team had promised not to profile each other unless they had to. But he couldn't help himself, it wasn't like there was an off switch. "Why do you blame your mom for the divorce?"

"Oh right that was my original point, sorry Reid I tend to go into too much detail, it's one of the bad qualities I inherited off my mother." Kit began as she crossed her legs. "But my original point was that my dad is a good marine but more importantly he was a good husband and still is an excellent father. He didn't cheat on her, he worked his hardest everyday to provide for his family and serve his country. Whilst my mom is doing the same thing now which she didn't back then; nothing so it's kind of hard not to blame her but I'm not naïve, a marriage takes two people and clearly I'm missing something as I don't know everything that went on but it still kind of put a black cloud of my oh so sunny life."

"It's okay to be upset with your parents over what happened, you were a child and they were the two most important adult figures in your life." Reid assured Kit who seemed kind of melancholy after talking about her family.

"The funny thing is no matter how mad I am with them, I'm glad they got divorced because Sammy and Lex would have never been born and the idea of life without them is scary." Kit said as she laughed at the absurdity of her statement. "And as messed up as everything was, I wouldn't change anything in my life because it would make me myself. You're not the only one whose family isn't perfect so you're not alone. My family is immense and very weird and if you ever saw all eight of us together we would scare the hell out of you Reid. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that we are a very freaky family."

Reid looked at Kit, it was hard to believe that someone who looked the way she did called him a friend as he had never been friends with someone that beautiful who was also his own age. He was pretty sure she was the first friend had who was the same age as him in about ten years, just by look at Kit he knew she understood him in a weird way. So it would be okay to tell her about his family, more specifically his mom. "My dad left when I was a kid and it wasn't until today that I learnt it was because of my mothers involvement with the Riley Jenkins case…"

"Why did you think he left?" Kit questioned slowly and Reid could tell she was trying not push him.

"Originally I thought he left because of her condition; my mom is a paranoid schizophrenic." Reid quietly announced as he carefully watched Kit's expression but she just looked at him and smiled. "Like most parents tell their children, my mom told me that I was a very special child and I was different, I wasn't like other kids… I liked science fiction and reading with mom, who taught me everything I knew... I was twelve years old when I graduated high school."

"You read with your mom?"

"I know it sounds dorky but she used to be a professor of 15th centaury literature." Reid rambled trying to explain himself as he was caught off guard when Kit didn't comment about his age when he graduated high school like most others.

"It's not dorky Reed it's sweet, I know this isn't the same thing but I read the newspaper to my dad when he smokes his evening cigar when I go to visit him." Kit began before pausing momentarily. "How long has your mom been schizophrenic? A few years?"

"Since before I was born, she went off her meds when she was pregnant with me and she always tells me that it was worth it. When I was kid she'd sometimes go off her meds and just lay in bed until I could convince to take them again until I realized that it wasn't healthy for either of us so when I turned eighteen I had her committed to a sanatorium in Vegas, where she's been everyday… Reid said trailing off as he thought about his mom. "I write to her everyday because I feel guilty about not seeing her."

"I know this probably won't do anything but you shouldn't feel guilty for wanting to live your own life Reid, you spent most of your childhood looking after your mom when you were the one who was supposed to be looking after. I can't possibly imagine how hard it must have been when you decided to have her committed but I think you did the right thing for both you and your mom. I must say she must be a pretty cool lady to have raised you and I bet that she is super proud of you Reid." Kit told him before pausing and Spencer could see her eyes twinkle in mischief. "You know we could always swap mom's and I can throw in a dad as well, two for the price of one?"

Reid could feel his face blush at the compliment and the offer, there was a small probability however tiny that may be that Katherine Swanson was even more odder than he was who was staring at him with a blank expression. Reid took this to mean he had been rambling again as the others all looked at him like that whether he rambled. "Sorry for the rambling I know it annoys everyone…"

"Don't be, I like when you ramble I think it's cute and besides I've been doing a bit of rambling myself and bossing you around, so sorry about that Reid. This pyjama party was rather impromptu and stuff like that are one of my many bad habits according to my mother… " Kit pointed out with a self assure smirk on her face which Spencer couldn't decipher for the life of him.

"I don't mind."

"You don't just have say that for my benefit Spencer."

"I'm not." Reid began.

"Okay then, how about watching a film? Then we can order take out…" Kit suggested.

Reid couldn't help but laugh, he was pretty sure that Kit had a black hole for a stomach even though he knew that was physically impossible so it was more of a metaphor. "Your still hungry?"

"Always." Kit quipped as she placed a hand over her stomach. "So ja or nein to a film?"

"Only if we can watch a clockwork orange, you promised me we'd get round to watching it." Reid retorted and once he said that something weird happened as it looked like Kit was trying not to laugh at what he said for some odd reason.

Kit shook her head whilst trying to remain as straight faced as possible. "Reid, I don't think that's a good idea…"

"Why not?"

"I don't want to be the one to 'ruin' you.' Kit explained as she used the bunny ear air quote action to place emphasis on the word ruin.

"Kit's it a film, all it consists of are a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, it won't ruin me." Spencer replied, as he wondered why on earth everyone on the team was making a big deal out of this film.

"If your sure, but don't say I didn't warn you…"


	6. Chapter 6

Kit felt dead on her feet but yet she found herself at work as she walked in the BAU and made a beeline for desk, ignoring the stares from her co-workers as undid her coat and placed her bags on the floor and kicked them under her desk. She had been travelling for about close to twenty fours hours which included the two flights which totalled 16 hours travelling time as well as the three hour layover. Kit had barely slept on the fight and as such she was tired but in no mood to sleep, however she was hungry and needed a cup of coffee before she started on her paperwork. A part of still couldn't believe that she had come into work but then again Kit's behaviour had always been a bit questionable but never before had Kit come into work after something like this. But she wasn't in the mood to be alone at the moment and she didn't want to go over to her mother's house or her dad or any of her siblings so her only remaining choice was into work for a few hours. Kit prayed that the team didn't get called out on a case as she just wasn't in the mood today, all she wanted to do was sit at her desk and clear all the files and paperwork she had piling up in it. Although the pile did seem significantly smaller from when she had left. It was probably the jetlag and the lack of sleep kicking in.

"Oh Kit, your back already? I thought you were going to be off for a few more days." Jordan Todd – JJ's temporary replacement whilst she was on maternity leave – said as she walked past Kit's desk carrying an armload of files.

"No I'm back, I said I was only going be gone for five and it's been exactly that." Kit replied wearily unable to offer up any kind of smile to her colleague as six days ago, late in the evening she had gotten a phone telling her that Minako Sasaki a friend of hers from her time in Okinawa had passed away. As soon as she got the death notification Kit jumped on a plane to Japan and she had gotten back early this afternoon.

"Well sorry to burden you but these are for you." Jordan told her as she handed Kit seven files before walking off in the direction of Hotch's office.

"Great…" Kit muttered as she wearily sunk into her chair and placed the seven files on her desk, she really regretted her decision to come into work now. Kit would actually prefer to be at her mother's house and trying to blank out her mother's docile tones as she lectured her. Coming into work was a very bad decision.

"You look like you could do with this Kit." Emily said as she held out a cup of coffee to her, which Kit gratefully took. "You just get in?"

"Thanks and yeah I just got in from the airport and I know that this is the last place I should be especially after a sixteen hour flight but I can't sleep, my mind just won't shut off so I figured I'd get some work done."

"Your friend meant a lot to you." Emily noted and Kit nodded before taking a sip of her coffee, she knew she wasn't going to cry as she had cried so much in the last few days she had no tears left.

"When my dad got transferred overseas it took sometime to get adjusted, I was used to moving as part of my dad's postings but Japan was completely different. A new country and a completely different culture and Minako was my first friend outside the base in Okinawa… Despite the fact that we were so different, she was shy and I was very outspoken. Her parents are very traditional people but they seemed to like me and so I became like a second daughter to them and they helped me learn Japanese and I was always welcomed at their home. When I came back to America, Minako would visit me and I would try and shove as much Americanisms down her throat whilst she here. She'd always find it funny that whenever we were speaking to each other in Japanese, she could always hear a twang of my accent. Minako was the best part of my time in Japan, the first friend I had outside a military base in god knows how long." Kit said with a weary smile, just thinking about Minako was hard as Kit had known her for just over half her life. Minako had been her friend and now she was gone. No more emailing it each other countless times trying to figure out the best time to call each other because of the time soon differences. No more parcels sending each other parcels filled with candy and other small trickets. "On paper we were completely different but when we were together, it didn't matter that we were from completely different worlds. We would just be normal teenager girls, laughing and gossiping about boys. I visited her a lot over the years, especially was in college and it was great. We would spend time in Okinawa but as we got older we'd venture out more. When we 18 I came over for the summer and we went travelling and ended up in Tokyo for the last few days. I ended up staying an additional week with her in the city because it was the most fun I ever had. Minako called me Kii-Chan and I called her Mi-Chan. I was the maid of honour at her wedding… Her kids call me Oba-sama. I can't believe that she's gone…"

"What happened? If you don't mind us asking…" Morgan asked slowly.

"According to her husband, she hadn't been feeling well and Minako brushed it off as being nothing instead chose to focus on her family. She collapsed a week ago where it turns out with pneumonia but it was too late…" Kit said as she took a long sip of her coffee. "That was Mi-Chan for you, always thinking of others before herself…"

"Hey you're back!" Kit looked up to see Garcia walking into the bullpen with Reid and Garcia rushed over to hug Kit from behind. "How you doing Goldilocks? We've missed your presence."

"I'm in need of something stronger than a coffee but I'm good Garcia and glad to be home and thank you for sending me the kimono, I really appreciate it. As soon as I landed I went to see Minako's parents and it didn't even cross my mind that I needed one until I got my hotel room and there it was." Kit replied with a small smile.

"I'm not to thank Kit, it was all sweet cheeks idea, I just sent the order." Garcia announced much to the surprise of Kit who looked over to Reid, who smiled nervously. The fact that Reid had done that for her, completely knocked Kit for six and she was beginning to suspect that he was the reason to the case file load on her desk looked significantly smaller. Now Kit really wanted to cry.

"I can't believe you did that…" Kit said as she just continued to look at Reid, sure she had told him about her time in Japan and told him all her life there, her friendship with Minaako but also about the customs and the culture before teaching him simple phrases. But the fact that he had remembered how much of an effect her friend and Japan had on her to have a kimono delivered to her, struck Kit in absolute awe. Reid may be a genius but Kit had learnt that the boy wonder was prone to forgetting things he had been told. So Reid remembering all of that was something else and it was hands down the sweetest thing any man had ever done for her and the fact that it had been Reid made it even sweeter. There was something about him that Kit found herself being very attracted to him, even more so when he kept surprising her. Kit liked Reid way more than she should and it was something that wasn't going away especially when he did things like this. "Arigatou gozaimasu"

"Dou itashimashite, senpai." Reid replied and Kit couldn't help but tearily laugh as for a genius Reid was terrible with the pronunciation of any language that wasn't english but he was getting there.

"Don't call me senpai, I'm barely older than you Reid."

"Sorry." Reid quipped as he couldn't help but smile and Kit wiped away the small tears that were stinging her eyes.

"Don't apologize Reid, I'm the one who bailed you on a few nights ago so if anyone should be doing the apologizing it's me. And don't think I won't make it up to you because I am." Kit teased as her and Reid had gone out the evening that Kit flew to Japan to watch a film and grab something to eat and they had been having a good time until Kit got the call from Okinawa which caused her to take off to pack her bags and go to Japan.

"Whose up for a drink after work?" Morgan asked and the group all looked around.

"Several." Kit said holding up one hand before she could hear her cell phone ring, Garcia had to let go off her to let Kit reach down and grab her phone not bothering to check the caller id before putting it to her ear. "Swanson…"

"Katherine."

Kit sighed, of course it was going to be her mother who she really didn't want to speak to as she had still not gotten around to telling her mother about her transfer to the BAU. Kit regretted not checking her caller id as well as coming to work although she did take back that whole thing she was wishing she was at her mother's house. "Yes mother?"

"So you do know how to answer your phone? I've been calling you for days and you've been ignoring every single one of my calls." Cornelia questioned.

"I've been trying to save you money Cornelia, you of all people know how expensive international calls to Japan are. Besides I've kind of busy the last couple of days." Kit retorted before leaning back in her chair. "So what did you want to speak to me about mom? I'm assuming that it's highly important if you've been trying to reach me for days."

"Of course it is darling, I need to know what your wearing to the Campbell wedding, it's in five days and you promised me you'd come with the family. So I need to know so that your outfit won't clash with the rest of ours."

"Mom, seriously? I've literally just got back in from burying Minako and I have a heap load of paperwork and sleep to catch up on so the last thing I want to talk about is a wedding of people I don't really care about. So if you want me to turn up for this stupid wedding or for Christmas at all this year then leave the hell me alone for the next few days." Kit angrily retorted before ending the phone call and looking up to see the rest of her co-workers looking at her. "I know I shouldn't talk to my mom that way. But apparently this wedding of one of my mother's friends daughters trumps the fact that I just lost a friend, so I could really do with a drink."

"Tough time of the year with the family?" Emily guessed and Kit shook her head, the word tough was an understatement with her family because the word she preferred to use was intense. "

Not my family, just my mom… It's the whole being pushed together and under one roof for the holidays and then being forced to go to all her friends parties which leads to drinking and arguments."

"Just your everyday family Christmas." Garcia quipped.

"You got it G."


	7. Chapter 7

Packing was taking a lot longer than Reid had initially anticipated, whilst he had clothes and toiletries packed his main problem was what books was he going to take back with him to visit his mom for the holidays. Whilst he had read all his possible choices and had them memorized, Reid liked the feel of reading a book in hands. The problem was trying to narrow down twenty books down to four and he was running out of time since he had flight early tomorrow morning. Reid was in the middle of deciding what books to take with when he heard a knock of his door and dragging himself away from the couch over to the door, Reid glanced through the peephole and he was surprised to see Kit standing outside his door. He wasn't expecting her but none the less he was pleased to see her so he opened the door and there she was, standing there with rosy red cheeks and a grin plastered on her face. "Kit, what are you doing here?"

"I am here to take you out." Kit announced in her usual bright and cheerful manner.

"E-excuse me?" Reid spluttered.

"I know I should have called but I knew if I did, you may somehow managed to convince me not to come. So I was at home and then I had this epiphany of some sort when I remembered our conversation from last week. So I figured I'd come share it with you before commandeering you for the next few hours seeing as you leave for Vegas tomorrow and I won't see you until after the new year." Kit said with a bright smile on her face. Reid tried his best not to laugh but it was hard not to when Kit was standing in his doorway trying to explain herself and he knew by now he should have been used to her unpredictable behaviour. She did after all force him so sleep at her apartment against his will.

"Really? Well why don't you come on in and explain this epiphany of yours?"

"Thank you Reid." Kit said as she walked through the door because squaring up to Reid. "We are both twenty seven years old and we work insane hours quite possibly doing one of the most challenging and dangerous jobs ever which we don't get paid enough for and it's a Friday night and we're both staying in doors so I decided that we should go out plus and embrace our youth. Besides I owe you for abandoning that night when I took off to Japan."

"Kit, I've told you already that you don't owe me for that." Reid prattled; he had been having this conversation or rather argument with Kit for three weeks now ever since she had returned for Japan. Kit was adamant that she owed him for abandoning her which he completely understood as one of her best friends had died. Of course Kit was going to take off but then he had sent Kit the kimono and things had go one from there.

"I've told you Reid, I am settling this debt…" Kit began before looking at Reid with a suspicious glance that made him feel uncomfortable. "Unless you don't want to hang out with me? Because just say the word and I'll go."

"N-No it's not that Kit…"

"Then what? Are you worried that I'll corrupt you or lead you astray with my bad ways or something? Seriously Spencer would I ever steer you wrong?" Kit questioned and even though Reid knew that Kit would never intentionally do something like that a part of him wanted to yes but as Morgan had taught him; never mess with a woman with a gun. Even though he was certain Kit wasn't carrying at the moment, Reid was certain that she could still hurt him if she tried so it would be better for him if he just went along with things.

"No." Reid said swallowing a lump in his throat as he spoke and apparently his answer seemed to please Kit as she beamed.

"Then it's settled, we'll go somewhere local for a couple of drinks and I promise you that I will bring you home in one piece."

"Okay."

As reluctant as Reid was to go out he let Kit drag him to a bar less than ten minutes away from his apartment and she didn't argue with him when he ordered a ginger ale and she ordered a beer. They did argue on who was paying for the drinks until they worked out a compromise, once everything was settled they grabbed a table in the back and sat down and talked. Surprisingly the subject of work only came up once and mostly they talked about their plans for the holidays, the bureau's Christmas party which took place a couple of days ago and other menial things for a good hour or so until their conversation got interrupted by a man who Reid would describe as a typical frat boy came over and asked if he could by Kit a drink.

"No thank you." Kit politely said.

"Aww c'mon, one drink won't hurt…"

"Can you not see I'm here with someone?" Kit asked the man in polite manner motioning to herself and Reid.

Reid wasn't blind or as oblivious as everyone thought he was, he knew that Kit was very beautiful and he had noticed that the first time that they had met and if he could see that than surely any other man would and it was only a matter of time before she left him for someone better worthy of his time. Instead of waiting for that to happen Reid decided to leave and he started thinking of a sufficient excuse that Kit would be more inclined to believe other than just telling her he was tired. Reid was too busy formulating an idea in his head that he didn't notice the hand waving right in front of his face until he looked up. "Kit…"

"Hey handsome, glad to see you're returned to planet earth." Kit said trying hard not to laugh, Reid noticed that she tended to laugh off his behaviour a lot of the time. She said he found him funny, Reid often replied that he wasn't trying to be funny to which Kit would reply that was what was so funny.

"Sorry I was just thinking."

"No need to apologise, I for one understand the need to drift off and think. In fact I usually pick those seminars that the bureau force us to go to for whatever it is they feel the need to teach us to do my thinking." Kit began and when Reid didn't start to ramble on how the seminars were used as a teaching purpose Kit became concerned. "Spencer, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just that I thought that you might want to find better company especially with that guy." Reid found himself admitting.

Kit was genuinely surprised and her reaction confused Reid. "I'd never bail on you Reid, we came here together so we are leaving here together. The fact that you'd believe that I'd leave does sort of hurt given that we are friends. Although I can't blame you for thinking that because technically I have abandoned you but still I'd never intentionally leave you especially for another guy."

Her genuine sincerity struck Reid off guard, he didn't have many friends his own age with the whole graduating high school at age twelve thing but even as a kid the other kids his own age didn't understand him and either picked on him or ignored him. But Kit was entirely different, she'd never pass up a chance to play cards with him despite knowing full well that the probability of her winning were next to nothing. She also loved to eat which made her a good companion for whenever he wanted to try a new restaurant. "I'm sorry, it's just beautiful women like you don't really hang out with guys like me."

Kit looked down so that Reid wouldn't be able to see the blush on her face from the compliment he had indirectly given her. But she was surprised at the way Reid saw himself, okay so he wasn't Brad Pitt but he was Spencer Reid and Kit had never really understood what the big deal with Brad Pitt was. So he starred in movies, big deal? The guy she liked helped catch and put away murderers on a daily basis which Kit thought was more impressive. Although Reid would never realize this as he was pretty damn clueless when it came to women. "Guys like you? Who are kind, considerate, handsome and not to mention incredibly smart who also happen to be magicians?" Kit asked.

"With the social skills of a door mat." Reid states.

"That may be a little true Reid but truth be told I'd pick you over that stranger any day. So what if you're social skills aren't great? I'm not exactly perfect either, I'm 27 but with the maturity of a fifteen year old most of the time. You managed to win me and every other person that calls you a friend over. I like the fact that you're a little different from everyone else Spencer." Kit replied, poking Reid several times in the chest.

"You're just saying that to cheer me up Kit." Reid retorted, noting that Kit was switching between calling him Spencer and Reid. She generally called him Reid in most instances but whenever she was worried or concerned about him, she called him Spencer. Reid was pretty sure that Kit wasn't even aware that she was doing it.

"No I'm not, I am saying it because it's the truth and I believe it… Why else would I call you handsome if I didn't mean it Spencer? I've openly admitted that I think that you are devastatingly handsome ever since the day we met." Kit stated and Reid's confused face was more than enough to make her laugh. "You may be a genius Dr. Reid but your cluelessness is one of the most endearing things about you."

"Really?"

"It's one of the things I like most about you aside from you being the sweetest man I have met, only you would send me a kimono half way across the world because you knew I would need it." Kit began before looking at her watch. "Geez, look at the time we've been here for a good few hours… I need to get you home Reid, you've got an early flight which I don't want you miss."

"Kit, I can walk myself home."

"A promise is a promise Dr. Reid." Kit counter argued and Reid knew it was best not to argue with Kit so he allowed her to walk with him the short distance back to his apartment and once they reached his building did they say their goodbyes.

"I'll see you when I get back, right?" Reid questioned.

"Sure, give me a call and we'll go somewhere to eat and we can exchange holiday stories if we're not buried in cases when we head back to work." Kit quipped before looking down at the ground and Reid was about to ask her what was wrong when she took a few steps closer to him and looked him in the eye. "Something you said at the bar is bugging me so I'm just going to come out and say this when I should probably keep it to myself. But that glass of wine has seemingly given me some liquid courage so here I go. Spencer Reid, you have no idea the way people see you; the way I see you and if you did then you wouldn't think that girls like me would never be interested in boys like you."

Reid was at a loss at this, he didn't know how to reply. "I-I…"

"Merry Christmas Dr. Reid." Kit told him with a smile before closing the distance between the two of them and pressing a delicate but lingering kiss on the lips of one Dr. Spencer Reid and a after a minute or so she pulled away to see him blushing a furious shade of red and laughing she gave him a quick kiss before she made her way out of his apartment building.

"M-Merry Christmas Kit."


	8. Chapter 8

Kit surveyed the room that was bustling with people who she had met at one point in her life but honestly didn't care about as they were friends of her mother and stepfather. Kit was beyond bored at the moment as she had spent the best part of an hour and a half making idle small talk with people she had no real interest in but Kit had to make an effort as her mother had been hovering over her shoulder for most of the night. What Kit did care about was swiping the bottle of red wine to the side of her and sneaking off upstairs without anyone noticing so she didn't have to endure another moment of her mother's annual Christmas party. Every year Kit along with her siblings were forced to come to this party and allow her mother to show them all off to her friends, it involved them talking about their lives and most specifically their jobs. Given that Kit hadn't told her family that she had been transferred over to the BAU, she didn't particularly want to talk about her job with people she barely knew. So half the night Kit had told people that she couldn't talk about any active cases. It had seemed to work. Without drawing any attention to herself Kit picked up the bottle and a wine glass before quietly making her way out of the living room, across the foyer and past several of the waiting staff before hurrying up the stairs. She knew that her bedroom was the first place her mother would come looking for her when she realized Kit wasn't downstairs so she went into her youngest sister's room where she found both of her sisters in there much to her surprise, drinking champagne.

"You know underage drinking is illegal and as a federal agent, it is my job to enforce the law…" Kit began as she closed the door behind her.

Sammy narrowed her eyes at Kit wearily before finishing the rest of her drink. "It's Christmas and all five of us are under the same roof again, forgive me if I find that issue more pressing than that of the legal drinking age…"

Laughing Kit sat down on her sister's bed, their mother had forced herself, Gabriel and Maddy to stay here over Christmas despite the fact all three of them were all grown adults with their own places. "True, so I'll let that one slide…"

"Hiding from mom?" Maddy questioned as she took the bottle of wine from Kit and opened it before taking the wine glass and pouring Kit a glass and Kit couldn't help but nod. She had come upstairs to escape from their mother and clearly her sisters had the same idea as well.

"I've played nice and not said anything rude when she's criticizing my life in front of her friends so I deserve to sneak off, why are you two hiding?"

"The whole college thing came up and mom started with how she wants me to go to Brown and then she started on where she wants Maddy to do her residency…" Sammy explained and Kit nodded in understanding as she had been down that road with their mother once before and it hadn't been pleasant. "I just can't deal with the college thing with her at the moment, I've sent my applications in and I just want to forget about for a couple of weeks but mom keeps bringing it up."

"Still haven't told her about Princeton?" Kit guessed, her mother was obsessed with having all of kids attend ivy league colleges which was understandable and also a little bit elitest but Kit's mother had some serious control issues and like to plan out her kids life and since Kit, Gabe and Maddy had all finished with school her focus was now on her two youngest. Everyone in the family knew that Lex had his heart was on Harvard and Sammy wanted to go Princeton but their mother had different ideas. Kit however though her mother was trying to get all her children to attend a different Ivy League school as Gabriel went to Yale, Kit had gone to Dartmouth, Maddy went to Columbia but more than anything Cornelia Fickler had wanted one of her children to go to Brown, which looked like that wasn't going to happen.

"No and I have to tell her soon because when I don't get a letter from Brown, she'll eventually found out that I didn't send it." Sammy said as she took Kit's wine glass and took a sip of it.

"Sammy, the last thing I want to do is tell you what to do but as your big sister I'll give you some advice. This is your life and your going to be the one going to college, not mom and the longer you wait to tell her the worst it's going to get. Trust me…"

Maddy nodded in agreement. "She's right Sammy and you might not remember this as you were a kid but the same thing happened with Kit. Mom was so happy when she found out that Kit was graduating at sixteen but that quickly faded when Kit told mom there was no way in hell she was going to Cornell like she wanted and that she was instead going to Dartmouth."

"Mom must have been thrilled." Sammy drawled sarcastically and Kit couldn't help but scoff as that was pretty much the understatement of the year. Their mother had blown a gasket when she had dropped that piece of news.

"Not the words I would use and Mom may not hide her displeasure that I went to Dartmouth instead of Cornell but she was there on graduation and she's happy that I at least went to college. I'll admit that mom sometimes has her priorities in the completely wrong order but at the end of the day she just wants the best for us…" Kit replied as she took her glass of wine back and Sammy narrowed her eyes at Kit suspiciously

"Since when are you on mom's side Kit? You're usually the one whose fighting her left, right and centre. What aren't you telling us?" Sammy demanded and Kit opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted when the door opened and her and her sisters froze suspecting it to be their mother but in fact it was their brothers standing in the door way look all sophisticated in their tuxedos with their hair combed back but looking none too happy.

"Here's where you are, we've been looking for you guys everywhere…" Lex complained, scrunching up his nose as he joined his sisters on the bed whilst Gabriel took a seat in the armchair in the corner of the room.

"I can't believe you guys hiding up here without us, I thought we never leave a Swanson-Fickler behind." Gabriel asked as he undid his bowtie and Kit couldn't help but smile. Despite the fact that she wasn't happy that her mother had forced her to move back in for the holidays, she was however happy to be reunited with her siblings. There wasn't many times that all five of them were together because of work and school, so Kit always revelled in being with all four of her siblings whenever she could. They were her little gang and Kit adored them all.

"Sorry Gabe, mom was driving us mad and so we decided to come up here and talk and Kit was about to share some news with us when you chose to walk in." Maddy said not sounding the slightest bit guilty for leaving her brothers behind.

"And what's that sweet baby sister of mine?"

Kit took a deep breath although she didn't know why she was worried, her brothers and sisters would be happy her for but telling them after all this time felt weird for her. "I have a new job. I left crisis negotiation two months ago and I transferred over to the behavioural analysis unit. I don't know whether you guys remember but it was the unit Jack used to work for before he started going up the chain of command. I've been there ever since the start of October and I'm working with Jack's old friend Dave Rossi which is just weird but amazing at the same time as Rossi is a legend…""

"That is wild, congratulations Kit…" Maddy said as she hugged her sister.

"You haven't told mom or Jack have you?" Sammy guessed and Kit shook her head.

"No I haven't yet because we all know what mom was like then I told her I was joining the FBI and she's going to freak out when I tell her the news that I now work in a prestigious unit of the bureau that profiles and helps to catch such criminals like serial killers and arsonists. So right now I am just not mentioning it to her and then I'm kind of not sure about what to tell Jack. I'm going to have to tell him as he'll find out eventually. It's just that right now I'm in this place at work where I don't have to worry about people making these judgements about me being there because my stepfather is the director. This unit is different from the last one I was at because they don't know about Jack so I'm not getting crap. Only my unit chief and Dave Rossi know about me being related to Jack and I want it to stay that way which is why I think I haven't told Jack. It's complicated to say the least and I need to figure something out." Kit wearily explained before taking a sip of her wine.

"Now I don't feel so bad about telling mom about Brown…" Sammy said as tried her best not to laugh.

"Well if we tell them now it'll put a damper on the holidays, so we'll tell them both after new years? Or we could just forget about it for the time being..." Kit offered.

Sammy nodded her head eagerly. "Let's do the second one."

"Anything else you want to tell us Katherine? You have a new job, so what about a new boyfriend?" Gabriel questioned and as soon as the words were out of her brother's mouth Kit could feel herself blush and she cursed her mother for being able to blush so easily. "Judging by the fact that you're blushing, I'm guessing that there is someone?"

"Spill! We want to know everything!" Maddy squealed as Gabriel and Lex shared similar looks of bemusement before rolling their eyes. Kit sighed, as much as she loved her brother and sisters, they did have a tendency to group together and gang up on her when they wanted something.

"Please tell Kit, I came all the way from Cairo to hear about your new boyfriend." Gabriel said in a very sarcastic tone of voice.

"He's not my boyfriend… It's not really anything at the moment, I kissed him the night before he flew home to Vegas for the holidays and we won't see each other until after new years." Kit slowly said.

"What's his name? What's he like…?"

"Dr. Spencer Reid."

"Geez Kit, how old is he? 'Cus he sounds like he's in his forties." Lex stated with a sour look on his face and Kit couldn't help but laugh, sometimes her baby brother reminded her so much of their mother. In a good way but he still reminded her of their mom on occasion.

"Actually he's a couple of months younger than me but very handsome but he's a genius in the literal sense with an IQ of 187, an eidetic memory and he can read 20,000 words a minute." Kit revealed much to the surprise of her sibling's shock.

"Seriously Kit?" Maddy questioned. "You're not pulling our legs?"

"No it's all true, Reid graduated high school when he was twelve and he holds PhD's in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering, as well as B.A.s in Psychology and Sociology; he is also working on a B.A. in Philosophy. He's the smartest man I have ever met in my life and it's amazing the amount he's achieved but he's not at all arrogant about it. Reid is the sweetest guy ever although despite his genius status he can be every clueless and his hand eye co-ordination is horrible but he's a great magician and he has these neat little tricks that he calls physics magic…"

"It sounds like you really like this guy Kit." Sammy noted.

Kit wearily nodded, her sister had it really right and Kit was starting to worry that it was going to become very obvious if she wasn't careful. "I do Sammy, way more than I really should seeing as we work together but Spencer is different to all guys I've dated before but that's what I like about him. He's not the most social person and yes he can ramble a lot and I now know more than anyone should know Mesopotamia. But Reid surprises me all the time like when I left for Japan we were at dinner and so I had to leave. But when I got to Okinawa, he had a kimono delivered to my hotel because I had told about how I spent sometime in Japan. I couldn't believe he remembered that, I think it's the sweetest thing a man has ever done for me… But you guys cannot say anything mom, I will get in so much trouble if this gets back to the bureau and that means Jack too as Reid and I work together and the bureau have rules about fraternization with other federal employees, so you have to swear to me that you will not say anything to anyone outside this room especially you Sammy…"

"Why me?" Sammy demanded

"Are you kidding me Samantha? Mom is still giving me grief about Cairo after a certain teenager opened her big mouth and blabbed as to my whereabouts." Gabriel retorted.

Sammy sighed as she played with a piece of her long hair. "I said I was sorry like ten million times already Gabe, it just came out."

"Look I don't even know where I stand with Spencer so just keep your mouths zipped about him and the BAU until I say otherwise, am I being clear?" Kit asked and she was met with a chorus of replies and she took a deep sigh of relief. Kit was lying to her parents and her team, the only ones who she wasn't lying to was her siblings and having them know everything that was going in her life took some of burden off her shoulders.

"There you all are! I've been looking for you all for the past twenty minutes." Cornelia Fickler said as she walked into her youngest daughter's room. "I did not plan this party for weeks just to have all five of my children hide in their rooms, none of you are small children anymore your all far from it so back downstairs every single one of you."

"Whatever you say mommy dearest…" Kit replied as her and the rest of her siblings got up and walked out of Sammy's bedroom.

"Especially you Katherine as your supposed to be on duty!" Cornelia scolded as she took Kit's drink out of her hand and Kit looked away in a guilty manner, the whole point of her swiping the wine was so she'd be able to get away from her mother and have at least drink in peace.

"Your working?" Gabriel questioned in surprise.

"In a manner of speaking, I agreed to be on Jack's protection detail for the holidays so that another agent could spend time with his family. I figured why should he be stuck watching over Jack when one his own kids is a federal agent and fully capable of watching him and arguing over the table at the same time…"


	9. Chapter 9

The first day back at the BAU after the holidays was something that Kit was looking forward to as all the good holiday programmes were over and she could no longer spend her days eating and drinking to her heart's content – and her doctor's ill needed fears. And Kit was finally back in the comfort of her own apartment much to her relief - as much as Kit loved her family, spending that much time under the same roof as her mother and siblings was hazardous and a time bomb waiting to go off. Fortunately Kit was not the one to set it off this year or rather last year, the honour had been given to Samantha who was still smarting from it.

But Kit forgot all about her family related drama when she made her way over to the kitchenette and spotted her favourite boy genius making himself a cup of a coffee. They hadn't spoken over the holidays for obvious reasons and Kit figured it would be as good as time as any to catch up with Reid. "Hey handsome, long time no see!" Kit said as she tapped Reid on the shoulder.

Reid jumped out of his skin about a mile in the air with his coffee still in his hand that spilt onto Kit's navy blazer narrowly and partially on her blue t-shirt. "Oh my god I am so sorry Kit!" Reid apologized as soon as he saw the damage as he failed to stop himself from blushing a adorable shade of pink.

"Don't worry about it Reid, it's just coffee." Kit laughed as she started wiping the coffee stain off her t-shirt and blazer with a cloth, she certainly hadn't expected to Reid to react like that but then again this was Reid she was talking or rather thinking about. "It's my fault for scaring you when you were clearly so deep in thought. After last time you would think I would know that Spencer Reid likes to drift off into his own mind like the rest of us. So note to self, don't interrupt the boy genius whilst in the middle of his thoughts as it will spook him…"

"Anyway how were your holidays? Have a good time with your family?" Reid questioned and Kit couldn't help notice his cheeks fluster a shade of pink.

Kit pressed her lips together to stop herself from laughing at Reid's adorable reaction and his question before eventually speaking. "It was interesting to say the least. But then again the holidays are always like that in my family I suppose, given how dysfunctional we all are…"

"How so? Anything particularly interesting happen?"

"Well my mom made Gabe, Maddy and I move back home for the holidays, so I've only been back at my place for a couple of days and then after new years Sammy told my mom that she didn't send in her college application to Brown which didn't go down to well and since then Sammy's been staying with me." Kit replied as she watched Reid refill his cup of coffee.

"Your mom kicked Samantha out?" Reid asked slightly alarmed at the news as well as Kit's reaction to this bit of information.

"Gracious no! She didn't kick Sammy out, they just got into a really heated argument and we all thought it was best if Sammy stayed with me. They both need time to cool off so in a couple of days I'll take Sammy home and everything will return back to our semi-functional way of living." Kit explained with a small chuckle. "Until next week or whenever the next situation arises, whatever comes first…"

Reid laughed. "So your Christmas wasn't exactly quiet."

"To put it simply. No." Kit said with a shake of her head as she skirted around Reid in order to grab a mug from one of the overhead cupboards so she could make herself a cup of coffee. "What about you? How was your time in Vegas with your mom?"

"Quiet."

The two of them laughed at the stark contrast of their holidays, as it was clear they both lived very different lives but that was part of what made them friends. Two people who were the same age, working together on the same team yet as different as chalk and cheese. "I can't believe we're back at work so soon and the amount of work we've gotten already… it makes it seem like we've never been away."

"Would you rather be back with your family?" Reid quipped.

"I don't know, arguing with my mom over how I live my life or the fifteen files I have waiting for me on my desk." Kit replied using her hands as scales as if she was weighing up her options. "Very tough and difficult choices."

"Fifteen? How is that even possible when I have twenty seven?" Reid questioned as his voice rose by an octave

"I'm only telling you this because you're so handsome Dr. Reid but Morgan slipped you six of his and Emily gave you three of her." Kit said with a cheeky wink before she turned her back to Reid in order to make herself a cup of coffee whilst he went back to his desk.

For their first conversation of the year and since what happened it was pretty normal for Kit and Reid considering things could have gone worse and been very embarrassing for the both of them not to mention awkward. They'd have to talk about what happened last year, it's not like they could pretend nothing happened and judging by the blush on Reid's face when he saw her this morning Kit knew he hadn't forgotten about the kiss. Kit clearly hadn't forgotten but now she was worrying about it as there was a conversation that she and Reid could have that could determine whether or not they stayed friends or not.

As Kit returned to her desk after making her coffee she saw a post it note that she was certain wasn't there before especially after she saw whose familiar scrawl was on the post it. _If you're not busy babysitting on Saturday do you want to do something? - Reid_

It was like he was reading her mind and considering how smart Reid was Kit wouldn't be too surprised if he had been reading her mind this entire time. But more importantly how did he get the post it on her desk without her noticing it. "How on earth did you–" Kit began as she spotted Reid finally making his way back to his desk.

Reid smiled as he sat down at his desk and took a sip of his coffee before speaking. "A magician never reveals his secrets."

Okay so he wasn't a mind reader but a magician seemed so much cooler to Kit anyway.


	10. Chapter 10

Kit found herself standing outside the national air and space museum on a Saturday morning. Reid had left another mysterious post it note on her desk on Friday telling her to meet him there at 12pm, so here she was waiting for the good doctor to arrive. "Sorry I'm late Kit…" Reid began as made his way over to Kit.

"It's no problem I've only been here for a few minutes myself, I dropped Sammy off back home and I ended up getting sucked into a conversation with my mom for twenty about something totally irrelevant." Kit explained.

"You look very pretty." Reid told her which caused Kit to beam as she looked down at her outfit, she decided to go causal today not her work casual but Kit causal which consisted of a navy coat, blue jeans and black boots which she topped off with a grey scarf and her hair in a french braid.

"Why thank you Spencer, I must say that you are the handsome gentleman as always." Kit began returning the compliment before moving things along. "So Mr. Magician you still won't tell me how you got that note on to my desk but can you tell me how you knew that this happened to be one of my favourite places in the entire world?"

"Whenever you get distracted you start doodling and the majority of the doodles are stars and the astrolabe key ring you have on your keys was a give away sign." Reid sheepishly admitted.

Kit wasn't surprised that Reid had managed to pick up on that but nevertheless she admired his observation skills. "As a kid I've always been fascinated with astronomy, I had the glow in the dark stars all over my bedroom and I could make the best paper mache solar system. My dad brought me here to tell me he was being posted in Germany and ever since then I love coming here to clear my mind."

The two of made their way into the museum and once they had finished queuing the first thing they did was go to the public observatory where they looked through the observatory's 16-inch telescope to see craters on the Moon, spots on the Sun and the phases of Venus, amongst other wonders of the universe. "The National Air and Space Museum was first established by Harry Truman, when he signed Public Law 722 on August 12th 1946, which made the museum a bureau of the Smithsonian institution." Reid said as he and Kit were making their way through an exhibition.

Kit did know that, in fact she knew many things about the space and air museum but hearing Reid telling her about one of her favourite places in the world was rather sweet. Although Kit realized that now she had to find out where and what was Reid's favourite place in the world. "It happens to house more aircrafts than any other museum in the world and it is the second most visited museum of the Smithsonian with over six million visitors a year. The Museum was created to celebrate the history of flight. Originally the museum only had aircraft, but after space exploration occurred the museum decided to also add spacecraft to the collection. The museum later reopened as The National Air and Space Museum here in 1978." Kit added.

"You know all of this."

"I know a little about a lot but I don't know everything so there is always room for me to learn more, so continue Dr. Reid. Let's see if you can tell me something that I don't already know." Kit said.

"You don't find this –" Reid began before having to pause as he thought of the right word to use. "Incredibly dorky."

"No it's incredibly sweet and besides I like dorky." Kit quipped as she poked Reid in the chest; she was going to have to work with him on this self-confidence thing, not that she didn't mind.

"Katherine I thought that was you! How have you been my darling girl? It's been weeks since I've last seen you." A voice rang out through the crowds and moments later a man in his late fifties with glasses and a bald patch at the top of head approached Kit and Reid.

"I'm great, I've just been incredibly busy with work but how are you?" Kit asked as she hugged the man.

"You know me I'm always doing great." The man began before slowly looking at Reid. "And may I enquire as to who your friend is?"

"Dr. Caldwell Earnshaw I'd like you to meet Dr. Spencer Reid, a friend of mine who I work with at the bureau " Kit began as she made introductions. "Reid, Caldwell is curator to many of the amazing exhibits here and he's been here at the planetarium for as long as I've been coming here."

"And Katherine is one of our most frequent visitors here, when she was a teenager it used to be every weekend until she left for college and ever since then it's been twice a month." Caldwell noted.

"I'd stay here forever if I had a choice however I have a job and my family so I have to be somewhat of a responsible adult but my heart will always belong here." Kit quipped and moments later Reid excused himself to use the bathroom.

"A doctor? My that is impressive…" Caldwell said mere moments after Reid was out of earshot.

"That's not even the start of it Caldwell, there's more to him that meets the eye and I'll have to meet you for lunch sometime for next week to explain it all to you but trust me it's worth it. He's worth it…"

Caldwell slowly nodded his head. "Has he met the family yet?"

"Gracious no! I don't want to scare him off, I don't even know what we're doing, I kind of need to talk to him about that…" Kit noted, she was going to have to talk to Reid about where the two of them stood.

"You might want to get round to that soon, a handsome boy like that is bound to catch some other girl's attention." Caldwell advised and Kit thought back to the bartender that Reid had met in Atlanta.

"Don't remind me."

Minutes later Reid returned and Caldwell excused himself, not before reminding Kit to stop by in the week for lunch leaving Reid and Kit to continue to go around the museum until they made the decision to leave two hours later to grab a small snack. "So you've know Dr. Earnshaw a long time then?" Reid asked as the two of them made their way out.

"Yeah, he's been here for like forever and so we became friends after he noticed that I was always coming back. He became friends with my dad through me and well, that's it really…" Kit said before stopping in her step and turning so she could look Reid in the eye. "We need to have a conversation."

"I thought we were having a conversation." Reid said, not sure of where this conversation was going.

"We are having a conversation but I'm talking about a whole different conversation entirely Spencer and this is kind of the last place that we should be happening…" Kit stated.

"Okay."

Kit nodded her head several times before she realized that Reid must think that she was some kind of idiot so she got on with her point before she did anything else stupid. "I kissed you before Christmas and there's a conversation that we could have, if you want… "

"A conversation about the fact that we kissed?" Reid slowly said.

Kit forgot how clueless Reid could be sometimes especially about women. "Yes and the point of the conversation is to whether you want to pretend that it never happened or if you want something else to come out of it. If you pick the first one then we'll still be friends or we could see what happens–"

Reid gave Kit a puzzled look and she was sure that meant that she wasn't making any sense to either of them but Reid surprised her when he took her hand. "That's why I asked you here Kit…"

The whole magic trick with the note was Reid's way of asking her out. Now who was the clueless one? "So if I offered to make you dinner sometime this week if we're not out of town on a case, you'd have no objections?" Kit asked, as she couldn't help but beam, she really needed to give Reid more credit where it was due.

"Not at all, dinner sounds nice Katherine." Reid replied with a small smile.

"Well that's good to hear because I liked kissing you Spencer and I'd like to keep doing it." Kit said as she leaned forward and kissed Reid's cheek, Caldwell was right, Spencer Reid was a keeper and now he was her's.

Reid turned an adorable shade of pink and grinned. "I'd like that very much…"


	11. Chapter 11

Kit sat at her desk drinking a milkshake feeling pretty content with herself as she sat doing paperwork, the team hadn't been called out a case in a few days so the atmosphere at the BAU was very light and it gave them all an opportunity to catch up the piles of paperwork they had and attempt to have a life. For Kit that meant she got to have that second and third date with Reid, which had put her in a rather good mood. Until she looked from her desk and saw the last person she wanted to see walk into the BAU.

Reid noticed Kit's face turn a deathly pallor and immediately started to worry about why she suddenly went from being so cheerful to like she had just been winded. "Kit, are you okay? What's wrong?" he asked but Kit said nothing instead choosing to look at the man in his mid fifties with glasses who had just walked in and although Reid didn't know the man, but he did recognize him to be Jack Flicker, the current Director of the FBI and former BAU team leader. Reid and the rest of the team all looked around at each other wondering why the director had suddenly dropped in.

"I am so sorry, I was going to tell you…" Kit said to Reid as she watched her stepfather make his way over to her with a rather angry look on his face. She was busted and up to her neck in trouble to put it lightly. "Oh shit."

Director Jack Flicker slowly nodded as he reached Kit's desk. "Oh shit is right Katherine, I came into Quantico to have a meeting and imagine my surprise when Chief Strauss comes up to me and says that I must be so proud that my daughter is working in the BAU just like I did. Where as far as I knew she's been working in hostage negations for the last few years, care to explain?"

Kit's eyes darted away from her stepfather's and she noted the looks of shock on her teammates face, she had a lot of explaining to do to everyone and she was grateful that Hotch currently wasn't in the office. "Jack… what are you doing here?" Rossi asked as he came out of his office.

"Dave I should have known that you were in on this, why the hell didn't you tell me that Katherine was here?" Jack demanded.

"Jack…" Kit began but her stepfather ignored her in favour of getting a answer from Rossi and Kit wasn't going to let Rossi get all the blame when this was all on her. "Dad! Look I know you're pissed, but can we just talk about this?"

The use of the parental title seemed to soften things down and Jack sighed. "Fine, where do you want to do this Katherine?"

"–Wait, now?" Kit asked flabbergasted, she was thinking about doing this tonight after work, not now in the BAU.

"Better late then never I think, considering how long this has been going on under my nose don't you think Katherine?" Jack replied and Kit nodded slowly, she wasn't sure who she was talking to; her boss or her father but either was she was scared and definitely in trouble one way of the other.

"Why don't we go and talk in my office?" Rossi offered as he patted Kit on her shoulder before leading Jack in the direction of his office.

Kit took a deep breath and ran her hands through her hair, she didn't have enough time to mentally prepare for this and she couldn't play the crying card, as she wasn't a teenager anymore. "Dad? The director of the FBI is your dad?" Emily asked on behalf of herself, Morgan and Reid.

"Stepfather… but yeah he's my dad." Kit admitted as there was no way she could possibly deny it now.

"Your stepfather is the director and you didn't think to mention that once since you've been here Kit?" Morgan demanded.

"I–I know that your all mad and you have every right to be and I promise that I will explain everything to you but right now I have to take of this…" Kit said as she got up from her chair and her eyes briefly looked over to Reid's who refused to meet her's. So now Kit had an angry dad, co-workers and boyfriend to deal with and so she left to deal with the first on her list and she quickly darted over to Rossi's office, swiftly shutting the door behind her.

"Three months you've been working in the BAU and I only just find out about this?" Jack immediately demanded. "Did you tell anyone about this or I the only one whose not been left in the dark about your life Katherine?"

Kit shook her head. "Mom and dad don't know but I did tell the others at Christmas…"

"Of course you did, the five of you are like the CIA when it comes to keeping secrets except for Samantha although I am surprised that your sister has managed to keep quiet for this amount of time." Jack said and Kit tried her hardest not to laugh, which reminded her that after this she'd have to call all of her siblings and give them the heads up. Because even though Kit was the one in the biggest amount of trouble, they'd all get in some trouble for keeping their mouths shut. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I was planning to tell you after I got settled but you know how hectic things get here and I couldn't exactly tell you the news over the phone or in an email. Then I didn't want to cause any problems during the holidays so Sammy and I agreed that we'd tell you both about the BAU and Brown after new years. Then Sammy shot the gun and considering the fallout from that I didn't exactly want to add that…" Kit explained.

Jack took a deep breath and Kit could see that he was calming down slightly. "I understand you not telling your mother, father and I during the holidays but why not come and tell me?"

"I was scared." Kit admitted.

"Of what? That I wouldn't approve of you being here in the BAU?" Jack questioned.

Kit shook her head. "Quite the opposite, I was scared about how proud you'd be because I know how much the BAU meant to you and I know you would have supported me because I can always remember the look on your face the day I told you that I wanted to join the FBI. Jack you know that I'm proud to call you my dad but I needed to do this myself. That's why I didn't tell you, mom, dad or my co-workers because I needed to be seen as an agent and not the director's daughter who gets special treatment. I just needed some time to prove myself that I did not get this job because of who I'm related to."

"Kit's been doing a great job Jack, you should be proud of her because I know I am." Rossi said, doing some damage control.

Jack took a deep breath and walked over to Kit and hugged her before placing a kiss on the top of her head. "I know that my job hasn't made your job easy and you've had to fight for your career."

"The Swanson-Flicker family don't give up in the face of adversity, we just keep on fighting." Kit smiled.

"I am and always have been very proud of you Katherine and I know that you'll be very happy here at the BAU especially working with Dave, although next time I'd like to hear any news of your career from you instead of through the grape vine." Jack warned.

Kit could see she was off the hook for the most part. "I promise."

"Now that I've done my fatherly duty, I have to get back to work just like the two of you have to." Jack said. "Katherine I will see you at dinner tonight, right?"

It was a request it was a statement and considering everything Kit could deal with having dinner with her family tonight. "Sure thing, I'll try and get out of here as early as I can."

"Dave, as always it's good to see you and try to keep her out of trouble." Jack said as he shook Rossi's hand.

"Will do Jack." Rossi said and moments later Jack Flicker walked out of the office leaving both Kit and Rossi to take a deep sigh of relief that it was all over. "Who told him?"

"Chief Strauss." Kit said with disdain and the two of them couldn't help but laugh until Kit realized something "Hotch is going to be pissed when he finds out about this…"

"You just took on the director of the FBI, let me worry about Hotch."

"Any advice on them?" Kit asked as she motioned her head in the direction of the bullpen, where Garcia and JJ had joined the others, and all of them were pretending like they hadn't been watching.

"On your own for that one I'm afraid kiddo but you should be okay for the most part just tell them the truth, I've found that it occasional works…" Rossi stated as Kit started to walk out of his office. "And don't forget you still need to tell the General and your mother."

Kit's head had dropped back at the realization, she thought Jack was going to be the worst but she had forgotten about the other two of her parents. Her father would have no problem her new job for the most part but her mother on the other hand… well that was an entirely different story. But Kit would have to worry about that later as now she was about to walk into the belly of the beast; where four federal agents and one technical analyst were all waiting for some answers.


	12. Chapter 12

"Spencer still isn't speaking to you?"

Kit looked at the computer screen in which she and Gabriel was taking to Maddy through and shook her head. "Nope he's still pretty pissed about the whole step dad being the director of the FBI thing and the only time he will talk to me is when we've got a case and even then it's obvious that he's only doing because he has to."

"It's been over a week already, he must be pretty pissed off with you Kit if he's still refusing to talk to you." Gabriel stated as he took a sip of his coffee.

"As much as I'm annoyed with the whole silent treatment act I kind of get it, the bureau have rules about fraternizing with felloe agents and Reid took a huge risk despite not knowing where this might led to then find out that the said woman he's dating is the daughter of the director of the FBI and co-indecently his boss. I'd be pretty pissed too if it was the other way round…" Kit said with a sigh.

"But your not just going to give up are you Kit? We all know that you really like Spencer so you must have an idea on how to convince him that you're not a lost cause." Maddy asked.

"No I'm not going to let him go and I'm trying to figure something out but wither the team keep getting called out on a new case or I'm at work till eleven in the evening trying to deal with the crazy amount of paperwork that I have… it's one of those times where I wish serial killers could spare a thought for the ones who have to capture them before they kill.

Maddy and Gabriel both laughed. "What about the rest of your co-workers? How are they dealing with the shocking news?" Maddy questioned.

"Rather well actually, after the whole bombshell being dropped in front of them I sat down and explained everything, then for good measures I took them all out for a drink after work. It seems to have worked as everything is kind of how it was before but now they all know the big bad secret." Kit revealed.

"Lex and Sammy still refuse to talk to her though…" Gabriel said and Kit frowned, she had been right when she said that her brothers and sisters were all going to get in trouble for knowing that she moved over to the BAU. Their mom had freaked out worse then Jack and grounded her two youngest children for keeping their months shut and Sammy and Lex weren't too pleased at this news.

"I know, I spoke with Sammy yesterday." Maddy replied with a sympathetic look. "The two of them are more pissed with mom than you Kit but just give them a week or so and as soon as mom's getting on their last nerves they'll come running back."

Kit shook her head as she opened up her bag and pulled out two brand new ipod's. "I can't wait another week so I brought them something to help speed up the forgiveness process."

"You're bribing them!" Maddy cried.

"That's such an ugly word to use, the way I see it I'm giving them a token for me unconditional love and appreciation to show how much they mean to me. In hopes that they'll both see that I never meant to get them grounded and if they happen to forgive me–" Kit began.

"–Like they won't see through that Kit." Gabriel snorted.

"Whatever!" Kit said with a roll of her eyes. "The twins are my brother and sister, they'll have to forgive me eventually and this way they get something expensive out of it!"

"You gotta do what you gotta do." Maddy said in a sing song voice.

"Exactly!" Kit said as she looked at her watch and stood up from her seat and put the ipod's back in her bag. "Hey I've got to get back to Quantico but I'll call you both later, right?"

"Sounds like a plan." Maddy replied.

"Ditto." Gabe quipped as Kit gave ruffled the top of his head and waved to her sister before making her back over to her car. A twenty-minute car journey later Kit made her way through the glass doors of the BAU where everyone else had obviously just finished lunch and was slowly starting to get back to work.

"Hey! How was lunch with your brother and sister?" Emily asked as Kit made her way back over to her desk and sat down.

"It was great even though I was speaking to my sister via a computer screen but with her being at med school we have to make the best of things. Then having my brother home for the next two years is just great because for the last few years Gabe's only been here three or four moths out of the entire year. So having here for a while is really nice and it means a lot to my mom." Kit replies as she briefly glanced over to look at Reid who seemed deeply concentrated in whatever file he was reading.

"That sounds nice." Emily noted.

"Yeah it is, as dysfunctional as we all are my family is really close." Kit replied as she settled herself back into the rather large pile of paperwork that she had abandoned in order to go to lunch with Gabriel and Maddy. A few hours later kit was surprised when she got a phone call from security saying that Lex and Sammy were here at Quantico wanting to see her. "That's strange…

"What is?" Emily asked.

"Apparently my brother and sister are here…"

"Didn't you just have lunch with them a few hours ago?" Morgan questioned.

Kit shook her head. "Yeah but those aren't the ones who are here, apparently it's my younger brother and sister; the twins. And this is quite surprising for them to turn up here…"

"Why?"

"They haven't been talking to me for the past week since my mom grounded them for not telling her that I transferred to the BAU. I just brought them ipod's to buy their forgiveness and now they show up here, eerie or what?" Kit said before laughing the bizarreness of it all as she straightened up her desk and shutting any open case files before Sammy and Lex arrived. Despite the fact that they knew what Kit did, she didn't want to scare them with pictures or reports that were laying around for them to see as not only were they not for their eyes but it would probably scar their tiny still developing little minds. Especially Sammy.

"Kids, are you okay." Kit heard Morgan ask.

"We're l-looking for our sister; A-Agent Kit S-Swanson."

That was the distinct voice of one Samantha Flicker and Kit couldn't help but smile as she got up from her chair, it had been weird not talking or hanging out with the twins this past week so Kit was happy that they turned up here to see her. "Hey guys…" Kit began but her voice got stuck a she saw something that shocked her to her very core.

"Kit…" Samantha Flicker's quietly said from where her and Lex stood behind Morgan and his desk but to Kit, the sound of his sister's voice was deafening. As she saw Sammy standing there with Lex, who looked like he had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson and lost. Judging by the black eye forming amongst the other bruises and the blood on his shirt.

"Oh my god…"


	13. Chapter 13

Kit immediately rushed over to where her brother and sister were standing and Morgan stood up from his chair and he and Kit lowered her brother into the chair. Up close her brother's injuries looked so much worse than they did after she first saw them and as Kit carefully brushed her hand past her brother's face he winced. "I-I didn't know what to do Kit… Lex didn't want to go to the hospital and he made me promise not to call mom and dad." Sammy explained.

"You did the right thing in coming to me Sammy, can you tell me what happened?" Kit questioned as she diverted her attention from her brother to her sister.

Sammy shook her head tearfully. "I-I can't tell you, Lex called me and said he needed my help… when I found him he said that some guys had beat him up. I-I wanted to take his to a doctor but he wouldn't let me…"

"Lex can you tell me what happened?" Kit began as she bent down to the floor so she could be at eye level with her brother. But Lex couldn't seem to focus on her and his eyes were uneven and Kit knew that her brother needed urgent medical attention as something was wrong with her brother. "Lex I need to take you to the hospital…"

"No…" Lex murmured.

"Alexander I know that you're not the biggest fan of hospitals after grandma died but you don't get a choice in this. I'm your big sister and it is my job to take care of you, I promise everything will be okay…" Kit said as she got up, although she was trained to remain calm in 'situations' this was different for her as this was her baby brother and she was trying her breath not to become and emotional wreck.

"Kit do you want us to call an ambulance?" Emily questioned as she picked up her phone ready to dial.

"It'll take too long, I'm going to have to drive as Lex needs medical attention now…" Kit trailed off as she went back to her desk to grab her jacket and bag, scrambling to find her car keys.

Morgan made his way over to Kit holding out his own car keys. "I'll drive, whilst you take care of your brother and sister." He said before making his way over to Lex and scooping the barely conscious teenager into his arms

"What's going on?" Hotch questioned as both he and Rossi came down the stairs from their offices and into the bullpen just as Kit, Sammy, Morgan and Lex were about to leave the BAU.

"Kit's brother has been attacked and he needs to go to the hospital." Reid explained to the two senior agents made their way over to the group.

"Alex?" Rossi began in shock.

Slowly Kit nodded trying her hardest not to get upset. "Rossi, will you call you Jack and let him know what's happened? If you get put through to his assistant tell Patty that it's about Katherine and it's an emergency and she'll put you straight through…"

"Anything you need kiddo."

"Go." Hotch ordered. "We'll let the hospital know that you're on your way.

"Call if you need anything!" Reid added and Kit wearily smiled at him.

The four of them left the BAU and headed straight towards the car park and in a matter of minutes they were leaving Quantico with Morgan driving with Sammy being upfront in the front passenger's seat whilst Kit was in the back with Lex. As she sat with her brother Kit's mind wondered to the rest of her family and going into her bag and grabbed her phone and dialled her brother's number. Kit had never been so grateful to hear her brother's voice in her life when he picked up the phone. "Gabe…"

"Kit that was quick, I wasn't expecting you to call back until later." Gabriel began.

"Gabe, Lex has been attacked." Kit said and the other end of the phone suddenly went quiet. "Gabe?"

"What do you mean he's been attacked? Is he okay? What happened?"

"I don't know what happened but I'm with him and we're on the way to the hospital, Sammy's with me and Rossi's calling Jack so we need you to meet us at the Potomac hospital… it's the nearest hospital, can you do that?" Kit but shouted down the phone.

"Yeah I can do that… have you called Maddy?" Gabriel asked.

"No not yet, you're the first person I've called." Kit rattled as her voice kept shaking despite her best effort to remain calm but it was getting more harder to stay in control as Lex started to look even more worse.

"I'll call her and let her know what's happened, you just focus on Lex and we'll see you all soon."

Kit hung up the phone and focused her attention back on her younger brother, taking his hand and reassuring him that everything would be okay. Thanks to Morgan's driving they arrived at the hospital in under twenty minutes and two doctors were already waiting for them. "Agent Swanson?" one of the doctors asked.

"Yeah that's me…" Kit said as her and Sammy followed the doctors into the ER whilst Morgan went to go and park the car.

"What can you tell us about the patient?"

"He's my youngest brother; Alexander Garrett Flicker, his date of birth is April 22nd 1991 his blood type is AB+ and as far as we know he's not allergic to anything. We don't know exactly what happened but he's been having trouble focusing…" Kit rambled as she tried to recall all possible relevant information off the top of her head but she literally had no clue where to start.

"Okay we'll take it from here, we'll keep you updated and if we need anything more than someone will come out and get all the relevant information from you." The other doctor said as they disappeared into a trauma room with Lex, leaving Kit and Sammy outside waiting.

"H-He's going to be okay, isn't he Kit? Lex is going to be fine…" Sammy tearily began and Kit pulled her sister into a hug, in an effort to comfort and reassure her sister in any possible way. If Kit thought this was hard on her, god knows how hard it was on Sammy. Her and Lex were two of a kind, even for twins and for Sammy to find him the way he was must be killing her inside.

That was something that Kit wasn't sure about, of course she wanted her brother to be okay but she wasn't a doctor. But there was no way she could tell Sammy this as it would freak her sister out more than she already was… "This is Lex we're talking about Sammy, of course he's going to be okay. You'll see, the doctor will soon tell us that he'll be fine and then Lex will get the god most awful telling off from mom for causing us all to worry and everything will be back to it's usual craziness…"


	14. Chapter 14

Kit sat with Morgan and her sister in the waiting room of the emergency room waiting for any news on their brothers, her and Sammy had been sitting here for what seemed the longest time ever as the doctors continued to work on Lex. Sammy was still freaking out about what happened and Kit was trying her best to remain in calm and in control because her freaking out would not help anyone in the slightest. "Agent Swanson?"

"Yes." Kit replied as she stood up, it was the doctor she had spoken to when they had first had brought Lex in and hopefully he would tell them some kind of good news. "How's my brother."

"He's stable at the moment, he sustained a lot of injuries, a couple of broken ribs, lacerations, black eye but that's what we're worried about. Your brother took a serious head injury and has a depressed skull fracture and we need to do surgery to relieve the depressed skull fracture." The doctor said.

"Shit… how serious is it and the surgery? Will my brother survive the operation." Kit asked as now she really wanted to freak out as the doctor was telling her that her baby brother, the seventeen year old Lex needed brain surgery. Kit wasn't stupid, she knew that brain was very risky and she had seen enough medical programme's to know that thing sometimes never ended well.

The doctor took a breath and Kit could hear Morgan's voice in the back of her head as he tried comforting her sister. "It serious and like any surgery there are risks and possible complications but surgery is the only option here, we needed to relieve the pressure Agent Swanson. As your parents aren't here yet and you an adult sibling of Alexander you can give consent of the surgery–."

"–Katherine! Sammy!"

Kit looked and saw her stepfather running down the hallway followed by several agents who were on his protection detail and never in her life was she relieved to see Jack as much as she was now. When he reached them Sammy ran over to her father and hugged him. "What's happening? How's Alex."

"Lex is stable at the moment Jack, he's got a lot of injuries but they say he's fractured his skull and he need surgery to relieve the pressure it's putting on his brain. The doctor was just asking for consent…" Kit said as she saw how hard her stepfather was hit by her words, his face paled and she could see his Adam's apple bob up and down

"Save my son, do what ever you can." Jack told the doctor and with a small nod the doctor left them and moments after he turned to Kit as Sammy was obviously too distraught to say anything. "What happened?"

"I don't know Jack, Lex was mugged or something but Sammy wasn't with him and she didn't know what to do because he didn't want to go to the police or you and mom so they came to the BAU asking for my help and Lex was a mess and he clearly needed medical treatment. We brought him here and that's as much as I know." Kit said shakily and her stepfather motioned for her to come closer and when she did her hugged her whilst still hugging Sammy. After a moment Kit moved away and pointed to Morgan. "Jack this Agent Derek Morgan, he works with me at the BAU and he drove us here."

"Thank you for everything you've done for my family Agent Morgan, it means so much to me." Jack began.

"I was happy to hope Sir." Morgan replied. "I'm going to get some coffee, do any of you want some?"

Kit nodded and asked if Morgan could get her sister a soda as she clearly needed something to jolt her back from the shock that he was in. After her left she turned to her stepfather. "Have you spoken to mom? I didn't get to call everyone I had to get Rossi to call you, I called Gabe in the car and he's on his way and he called Maddy…"

"Your mother is on your way and she'll be here in ten minutes and I've had agents pick up Madeline for school. I don't know how long it will take for them to get here." Jack replied.

In less than an hour the rest of Kit's family were all here at the hospital, they were all handling the news differently. Maddy being the future doctor was rather positive about the whole thing and was spending the entire time comforting Sammy who was still upset. Gabriel was being unusually quiet and sombre about it all and spending his time with their mother who was the most distraught of all and Jack. The six of them were all there and for the first time ever not arguing or making fun of each other, they were there as a family waiting for news about their youngest member. They sat in relative silence until Kit looked up from where she was sitting and saw the rest of her team walking in. "Hotch… what are you all doing here?" Kit asked as she got up to meet them.

"We're taking your brother's case." Hotch said and Kit was surprised because this wasn't a case the team usually took but then again the victim wasn't the son of the director of the FBI.

Kit took a slow and baited and breath. "You think that this has something to with Jack?"

"Maybe and it might have something to do with you or it might be a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and has nothing to do with you and the director but we're taking a case. Hotch replied.

Nodding her head Kit lead the rest of the team to where her family were all sitting. "Well Rossi you already know everyone but for the rest of you this is my family. My stepfather Jack, my mother Cornelia, my brother Gabriel and my sisters Madeline and Samantha." Kit said before taking a deep breath and turning to address her family. "Everyone these are Agents Hotchner, Prentiss, Jareau, Dr. Reid and you all know Rossi. I work with them at the BAU, their going to be looking into what happened…"

"Director how's your son currently doing?" Hotch asked.

"We don't know they had to take him up to surgery over an hour ago, something about pressure on his brain. We won't know anything for a couple of hours…" Jack said.

"We're going to have to talk to all of you." Rossi began.

"Do you have to?" Kit's mother Cornelia asked.

Kit walked over to her mother and placed a comforting hand on their shoulder. "They have to mom it's just standard procedure, if we want to figure out what happened to Lex then we figure out how this happened and why it happened. Don't worry mom, there's nothing for you to worry about just answer their questions."

"Samantha if you'd like to come with me, I'd like to ask you a few questions." Emily began and the look on Sammy's face was that of pure horror.

"Can Kit come too…" she tearily began.

Moving away from her mother Kit made her way to where Sammy was sitting with Maddy and Kit bent down so she could look at her sister. "I can't come with you Sammy, but there's nothing for you to be scared about Emily is very good at her job and I trust her with my life just like everyone else who I work. She will take very good care of you but maybe my friend Spencer can come with you and Emily, perhaps he can show you a magic trick?" Kit began as she turned back to look at Reid who nodded.

"T-this is my fault Kit, I should have made Lex…" Sammy hiccupped.

"Hey this is not your fault Samantha, you did everything that you were supposed to do and no one blames you for anything and you shouldn't blame yourself either. You took care of Lex and you bought him to me because you knew he needed help." Kit assured her.

Sammy sniffled and wiped her face. "Your crying Kit, you rarely ever cry."

"It's because I hate seeing you so upset but just go with Emily and everything will work itself out. You know us Sammy we can't function properly unless something's going on." Kit replied as she stood up along with Sammy and hugged her before letting her leave with Emily and Reid. This day was only going to get harder.


	15. Chapter 15

Kit sat on a bench outside of the hospital with no idea how long she had been there for, after talking to Rossi for over half an hour and trying to recall anyone who wanted her dead or cause harm to her she rejoined her family. Sammy had calmed down significantly however their mother had to be given a Valium to help her calm down, which was understandable. Kit now felt like she needed something to help her relax but instead she chose to come outside. Lex wasn't due to come out of surgery for at least three hours and given the fact that she couldn't work the case she needed some time to gather her head before she went stir crazy. "Kit?"

Kit was surprised to see Reid standing not to far away, looking down at her with a concerned look on his face. Despite the fact that he was angry with her for not mentioning that her stepfather was the director of the FBI considering the bureau had rules about dating other federal employees and they could both lose their jobs of be transferred out if anyone found out, he was still worried about her. It made Kit feel even more bad for messing things up between them. "Hey Spencer…"

"Your dad arrived here twenty minutes ago, he's with the rest of you family in the waiting area." Reid said moments after sitting down next to Kit on the bench.

"My dad's here?" Kit questioned suddenly more alert, her dad the general was here? It was simply amazing, the one thing she could really do with at the moments was a hug from Papa Swanson and as if by magic he was here at the hospital. Probably in his service uniform smelling of peppermint tobacco with bar of Hershey's chocolate in his jacket pocket.

"Yes." Reid replied and for the first time seen this whole ordeal started Kit found herself laughing and it got to the point that she was laughing so hard that she had to grab onto her stomach. "Kit are you okay?"

"I'm sorry it's just this was not the way I imagined you meeting my family, with my brother currently having brain surgery… " Kit began before she found her chest constricting and she was crying for the second time today. "He's only seventeen years old Spencer, Lex is a seventeen year old boy who wants to go Harvard and become a lawyer, if he dies because of me…"

"Kit this isn't your fault." Reid began.

"A teenage boy gets beaten to a bloody pulp for no apparent reason but his eldest sister just so happens to be a federal agent who profiles and catches serial killers on a daily basis, yeah this is in no way my fault Reid…" Kit wearily replied.

"We've found nothing to suggest that the attack on your brother has anything to do with your job. You can't blame yourself for this Kit because it isn't your fault." Reid said in an attempt to reassure her.

Kit shook her head repeatedly, whilst she could be strong in front of her family here she was falling apart in front of the one person who she wished would never see her like this. "Yes I can Reid because it is my fault, every Tuesday after school Sammy goes to her dance lesson and Lex goes and plays basketball with his friends at a park near the house. My mom grounded the two of them last week because they along with Maddy and Gabe knew that I transferred over to the BAU and didn't tell her. Mom could only ground the two of them and since they were grounded they both had come home straight after school for two weeks; no extra curricular activities. Lex should have been with his friends, if I hadn't of kept quiet and gotten them involve then we wouldn't be here now…"

"There was no way that you knew this would have happened Kit, you're not psychic…"

"He needs to be okay, Lex needs come out of this because I don't know what I'll do if he's not. I need to be able to apologize to him for what I did… you know I couldn't stand the fact that the twins were so mad at me that they didn't want to come to lunch with Gabriel and I today that I went and brought them ipods to bribe them into forgiving me?" Kit said as she wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her top. "I am such a mess... My father didn't raise me to be like this and be like any normal girl; he raised me to be a good soldier, to be strong and to love my country and my family and to always protect the things I love until the very end. But look at me I've messed up Reid, I screwed up with you, Sammy and Lex… it's been a week since everyone found out and I just seem to be making things worse. I can't seem to make anything right..."

"Katherine?"

Kit looked around to see that it was her dad standing there, dressed in his service uniform, as she thought he would be. But it was more the look on his face that bothered her, Papa Swanson could always tell when she had been crying and he would want to know why. "Give me a second dad, I'll be there in a second I just need to finish talking to my colleague."

"Kit it's fine, go be with your family." Reid said as the two of them stood up.

"No not until I say this to you Spencer, I know this isn't the most appropriate time or place but I want to apologize for lying to you and hurting you. I should have told you the truth, I could stand here and tell you again that I didn't tell you about my step-father because I didn't want to be seen as the director's daughter like I've been for most of my career. But I won't because I should have honest with from the start… I'm not asking you give me a second chance, I just want you to know how sorry I am." Kit tearily told Reid before walking away and over to her father who enveloped her into a hug.

"Kit-Kat, are you okay?" General Swanson asked after he let go of his daughter, using his nickname for Kit from when she lived on base with him.

"I'll be fine daddy, I'm just really worried about Lex." Kit replied as she and her dad made their way into the hospital. "What are you doing here? Your supposed to be at work…"

"Gabriel called me but I was in a meeting at the time so he left a message for me and I came as soon as I got it. Katherine, your mother and I may not be married anymore and she had Alex and Samantha with Jack but that doesn't change the fact that all eight of us are a family."

Kit leaned her head against her dad's shoulder as they continued to walk. "You always know how to make everything better dad."

Minutes later Kit and her father rejoined the rest of the Swanson-Flicker along with the four agents who were on her stepfather's protection detail, there were also additional agents on their way to protect the rest of the family and Lex once he got out of surgery. There wasn't much that they could do except for wait, Kit couldn't get involved in the investigation but she did know that JJ was currently trying keep this out of the media. She knew that Garcia was looking into her cases from when she was in the innocent images unit and hostage negations and the cases since she joined the BAU to see if anyone stuck out. Reid and Hotch were looking into any of the director's enemy's and whether or not someone was targeting the family then Morgan and Emily were looking at the possibility at this being a random attack. Hours later the doctor finally came back and they all stood up waiting to hear what the doctor had to say.

"Alexander did great, the surgery was very successful he'll have to be monitored in the ICU for a few days before he's moved into a regular but other than that everything has gone as well as can be expected." The doctor announced and the family gave out mixed reactions. Gabriel swore in a grateful manner, Sammy and their mother both started crying, Maddy and Kit hugged each other in relief whilst General Swanson and Jack both took turns in shaking the doctors hand.

"C-can we see him?" Cornelia asked as she tried to recompose herself in a rather dignified manner.

"For now I'll only allow you and your husband Mrs. Flicker and I can only give you a few minutes, it's late and Alexander has just come out of major surgery and I don't want anything to stress him out or upset him. Your son will be in a lot of pain and once the pain medication kicks he'll be asleep for the rest of the night. So I can only give you a few minutes but the rest of you can come back tomorrow." The doctor said motioning for Kit's mother and stepfather to follow him.

"You hear that Sammy? Lex is going to be okay." Kit said as she watched Gabriel hug their younger sister.

"Thank you Kit."

Kit was surprised by her sister's thanks, she wasn't sure why her sister was thanking her but nevertheless she went over and hugged Sammy. If this day had been stressful for them, god only knows how it had been for the Sammy. "I love you Sammy, you know that right?" Kit questioned as she joined her brother and sister in a hug.

"Yeah I do." Sammy added as Maddy joined the three of them, it felt a bit off not having Lex with them but as long as their brother was getting better than they could cope with doing a group hug without him until he was back on his feet. The four of them seemed to take comfort in each other as well as the fact that Lex was going to be okay.

"How's Alex?" General Swanson asked when Kit's mother and stepfather returned.

"Tired but he's doing okay." Cornelia responded with a small and weary sigh.

"We should probably all go home and get some rest it's been a long day." Gabriel said and the rest of the family all murmured in agreement. "Kit you need a ride?"

"No I'm good Gabe, I'm going to stay here actually and keep an eye on Lex." Kit replied much to the confusion of the rest of her family.

"Um… Kit, the doctor said that we couldn't stay." Maddy pointed out.

"Yes I did hear what the doctor said but Lex is under federal protection and if I can't work the case into finding out who did this to him and if I can't stay here as his sister then I can stay here as a federal agent. I can do my job to protect him in both capacities, that way we all know he'll be safe and one of us will be here with him when he wakes up in the morning." Kit replied.

Cornelia Flicker slowly walked towards Kit with tears brimming and threatening to fall and she kissed the top of Kit's head before hugging her. "Thank you my darling."

"It's no problem mom, you should all go home and get some rest I'll call you if anything happens if not then I'll see you all in the morning." Kit said and moments later she bid goodbye to her family and made her way to the ICU. The room that her brother was in was clearly the one that had the two agents posted at the door and after showing them her credentials Kit walked into Lex's room and sat in the seat in the furthest corner of the room. Her brother was sleeping, his head covered in bandages, bruises and cuts, despite how marred his face was he was till Lex. And she'd sit here in this room with him until she could tell him how sorry she was.


	16. Chapter 16

It was just after 8am and Spencer Reid found himself back at the hospital and heading through the doors leading to the ICU, when he came in he had to show his credentials to one of the agents at the door. It was protocol given that the Director of the FBI's son and Kit's brother was here as a patient and under federal protection. As he made his way to the room that Alexander Flicker was being kept in, the doors opened and out walked Kit who was still in the same clothes she wore yesterday. "Hey Kit…"

"Reid, what are you doing here?" Kit asked in clear surprise of his visit as she pulled her long blonde hair up into a ponytail. Looking at here Reid could tell that she had been up all night, no doubt watching over her brother. Yesterday had been a long and difficult day for Kit and her family given what had happened to her brother.

"Buy you a cup of coffee?" Reid offered and his voice for the first part of that sentence was rather high and squeaky before it settled out. He had no idea why Kit still managed to turn him into some bumbling idiot.

"Sure, that sounds really good actually." Kit replied with a small smile and the two of them walked out of the ICU. "So how'd you know that I'd be here?"

"Calculated guess. Not to mention you said that your father raised you to be a good soldier and a good soldier never leaves a man behind. Besides I know you Kit when your worried about someone you care about you do everything in your power to help them, even if it is sitting by their bedside or forcing them to come home with you." Reid explained as he and Kit continued to walk, he could see the crescent moon bags under her eyes and how she was trying her best not to yawn. She was exhausted. Reid estimated that she had been up for twenty five hours straight and the emotional strain that she was going through was making her even more tired.

"Papa Swanson is to thank for that." Kit wearily replied.

"How's your brother doing? Rossi told us that the surgery had gone well." Reid questioned.

Kit shrugged her shoulders. "Okay apparently my mom and Jack got to speak to him briefly last night, they said he was tried and in a lot of pain which is to be expected I guess. He did have part of skull cut out and have metal plates and screws put in. They gave him something so he could sleep through the night and they expect him to wake soon."

"What about you? How are you feeling?"

"Tired." Kit honestly admitted as she stopped and looked at Reid, yesterday was the first time he had ever saw her cry, it was such raw emotion from Kit and totally different from the kind, funny and enigmatic woman that he was used to. She was having a bad day and yet she still wanted to apologize for hurting him. Reid wasn't even sure why he was so mad with Kit, so she didn't tell him her stepfather was the director of the FBI but there were things that he hadn't told her. Like Tobias Hankel.

"You look it." Reid noted.

A smile crept up on Kit's face. "Thanks for that Dr. Reid, I know this hospital lighting makes me look half dead but I didn't think it was that bad and I would have thought you would have quelled my fears."

"Doesn't mean you still don't look beautiful." Reid added as the two of them finally arrived at a coffee machine and Reid sat about getting the coffee's while Kit tried her hardest not to fall asleep whilst standing up.

"Thank you for yesterday, I really appreciate what you did." Kit quietly said after Reid handed her a black coffee with two sugars, just how she took her first coffee of the day before later adding milk.

"For what?"

"Sammy. Going with her whilst Emily was giving her the cognitive interview, she was freaking out and I need something to calm her down and I had told her about you and I thought hat you being there might help her. If you didn't notice Sammy is the really emotional one out of the five us, takes after our mother in that retrospect." Kit explained as the two of them sat down on some uncomfortable plastic chairs that seemed to be an essential necessity in every hospital.

"Y-you told her about me?" Reid stammered surprised to hear this.

"Told all of my siblings about you, we don't tell each other everything but we talk quite a lot and tell each other the important stuff and I thought you were important so I told my brothers and sisters. Lex thought you were a forty year old man at first until I told him about your vast intellect and that you were the same age as me. They were all very impressed with what I told them especially when I mention the kimono." Kit said with a quiet laugh. "But what really did it was when I told them about the magic tricks."

"I'm sorry too."

Kit looked at Reid as if he had lost his mind. "Spencer Reid there is nothing for you to be apologizing for you haven't done anything wrong, I'm the one whose in the wrong here. I lied when I should have and that's that."

"You transferred out of hostage negotiations because they were giving you a hard time because of who your stepfather is." Reid stated because he and Kit both knew that this wasn't a question but rather a statement.

"No." Kit began with a sigh before she took a sip of her coffee. "But there are some elements of truth to that statement. They gave me a hard time alright and when I first joined the BAU I said it was because I was a woman but that wasn't true. They didn't care about that, they were too focused on the fact that I was the director's stepdaughter."

"Why'd you stay for so long?"

"I refused to let them win so I stood my ground, I came to do a job not to have my personal life and family scrutinized. I left the unit when I was offered the position at the BAU, I could have stayed there another ten years and taken their crap and not budged an inch. I love my stepfather but he has nothing to do with my job in the slightest." Kit said in mild amusement.

"I think I understand… this last week, I've been thinking about what you said about why you didn't say anything about your stepfather which is why I wasn't speaking to you." Reid began and he glanced over to Kit was looking at him in a bemused yet confused way and so he continued. "The only reason the bureau hired me even after I failed all the physical aspects of training was because of my brain. When I first joined the bureau people wouldn't take me seriously because of my age unless I was always introduced as Dr. Reid… and when people know that they look at you differently, which makes you want to prove to them that your more than what they see you as. I'm the brain and you're the director's stepdaughter."

"I see you as more than a brain, you have your adorable quirks and your wit, not to mention your incredibly handsome good looks if that helps. I told you Reid, I like you a lot."

"That's why I'm sorry Kit, I did to you what everyone did to me I allowed my perceptions of you to be changed because I found out who you were related to. I stopped seeing you as Kit and viewed you as the director's daughter." Reid said in a rather hurried manner until he realized Kit probably didn't understand a word he was saying given how exhausted she was.

"It doesn't matter."

Reid shook his head. "Yes it does!"

"Listen to me Spencer for the rest of my career I will be known as Jack Flicker's daughter/stepdaughter and I've learnt to accept that. The only thing that matters to me is that the people that I care about and the people who I work with see me as Kit Swanson."

"I'm sorry Katherine." Reid said.

"I'm sorry too Spencer, so how about we both stop apologizing because I've missed having my boyfriend around." Kit replied a she slipped her hand into Reid's.

Thankfully for Reid, Kit let out a loud yawn just over she said that so she couldn't see him blush a furious shade of pink. Never in a million years would girls like Katherine Swanson go out with Spencer Reid but then girls weren't like Kit Swanson who had just called Spencer Reid her boyfriend. It reminded him what his mother had told him a while ago about the right type of girl coming along when he was ready and Reid was starting to think that Kit might just be that one.


	17. Chapter 17

"Hey mom I'm home! Where are you?" Kit called as she made her way into her mother and stepfather's house, stepping into the marble hallway she waited until her mother called back to figure out where she was. The Swanson-Flicker house had about ten million rooms and although Kit knew her way round, she didn't have time to be looking in every room with as her mother as she had limited time.

"Katherine? This is a pleasant surprise, I'm in the sunroom darling!" Cornelia Flicker called out and Kit couldn't help but roll her eyes, she loved this house as it was the only consistent house in her life but did they really need a sunroom, a family room, a living room and two studies? It was bit excessive in Kit's opinion but it her made her mother happy so she didn't complain.

Making her way through the house Kit eventually arrived at the sunroom, where her mother was entertaining a guest. Which wasn't too surprising given her mother had a lot of free time on her hands at the moment as she had taken a few weeks off from her job as the owner of an interior design company since her brother had been hospitalized. As eccentric and overbearing as her mother could be at times, Kit couldn't deny that her mother didn't love her children and would drop everything in a heartbeat for them. "Mom…" Kit began until she saw who her mother was talking to.

"Good afternoon Katherine, you know Erin Strauss don't you?" Cornelia.

Chief Strauss! Of all the people to be in her childhood home… Kit was sure she was having a stroke or at least dreaming as Chief Strauss was sitting in her sunroom having a conversation with her mother of all people! "Yeah, Chief Strauss in the section chief of the BAU." Kit began before turning to Chief Strauss. "It's very nice to see you again Ma'am."

"Agent Swanson, I thought I'd come over to visit your mother and see how your brother was doing. It was a terrible thing that happened to him." Chief Strauss said and Kit's mother just nodded in agreement.

"Yes it was, Jack and I, not to mention the rest of the children are grateful for the bureau's help in what happened and finding out who attacked Alexander. As terrible as it was, we're glad that this was a random attack rather than anything to do with Jack or Katherine's job." Cornelia said and Kit just nodded dumbly, it had been three weeks since the attack and her brother had been home for three weeks. "So what brings you over Katherine? Not that I'm not happy to see you but you don't usually come round this early."

The question, brought Kit straight back to earth and she opened her bag and pulled out a small white paper bag. "Jack called me and asked if I could go pick up Lex's medication, he got pulled into some meeting that he couldn't get out of. So I said I'd do it."

Cornelia Flicker stood up and went over to Kit and squeezed her daughter's hand. "Thank you Kit, you've done so much already sweetheart."

Kit beamed, very rarely would her mother call her Kit and weird as it sounded being called Kit never sounded better than when her mother called her it. "It's no problem mom I'm happy to help, is Lex awake? I figured I'd give him these and have a talk with him before I went back to work…"

"Well he should be, I brought him up a sandwich twenty minutes ago." Kit's mother replied.

Excusing herself, Kit made her way up the spiral staircase to the second floor, where her brother's bedroom and took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Kit hadn't exactly got the chance to do the whole apology with her brother as his recovery was the most important thing. "Mom… for the millionth time, I'm fine!" Lex called out.

"It's not mom, it's Kit." She replied and on both sides of the door it fell silent until Kit heard her brother call out that she could come in. Walking in she saw her brother sitting up in bed surrounded by various books, snacks and a laptop. Gone were her brother dark curls and instead was a buzz cut and the scar from his surgery but he was still the same person although it was still taking time to adjust to how he looked now. "Hey you… Jack asked me to go pick up your meds and so I figured I'd hang out for a bit before I have to head back to Quantico…"

"Um thanks." Lex replied as he took the offered white bag and took his medication.

Kit sat down on the side of the bed and both siblings said nothing and looked around awkwardly which unnerved Kit as the work awkward along with quiet were not ones used to describe her family. "Look Lex, about what happened I'm sorry for getting you roped into all of my personal crap. If I had told mom about my transfer earlier than she would have never have grounded you and this would have never of happened…"

"What are you talking about Kit? I was jumped by some random idiots, it wasn't your fault and the thing with mom was no big deal. You know what she's like…" Lex replied.

"But you and Sammy weren't speaking to me and whilst Sammy and I are back to normal, you and me aren't buddy. So I figured that you were still mad at me." Kit wearily replied.

"Some profiler you are Katherine, you've know me my whole life and couldn't figure out that Sammy and I were just pissed at you for two days, I figured the longer I'd didn't speak to you the more free meals I'd get." Lex revealed with a small shrug of his shoulders. "You're my big sister Kit, as crazy as all of us are I could never stay mad at you especially since you helped save my life."

"Awww Lex, I love you too." Kit replied as she shook her brother's leg, her natural instinct was to shake his hair but said hair was now gone.

"Whatever."

"So how have you been doing? Jack says you're frustrated that you're tired all the time. Kit prompted and Lex just grimaced.

"What did dad not tell you?" Lex asked.

"Look Lex you had major surgery and the tiredness is your body telling you that you need to rest. It's been three weeks, the doctor said it could be another five weeks before you could go back to school so just take it easy and don't push yourself. You'll be back to your old self in no time at all and don't worry, Jack spoke to your headmaster today, said that no issues for you concerning graduation you'll be good to go but they have spoke to all your schools." Kit assured her.

Lex groaned. "What about you? How are things with the boyfriend? Maddy told me that the two of you manage to patch things up."

Kit beamed. "It's good. He's great. Maybe when your back on your feet I'll take you and Sammy out to dinner with Reid, give you a chance to get to know him. He's brilliant and you'll live him, it's kind of hard not to."

"I take it we're not telling mom or boss lady downstairs about this." Lex asked.

Damn, Kit had forgotten that Chief Strauss was downstairs with their mother. "No, the bureau have rules about fraternizing and I don't know where this thing with Reid is going so for the mean time we're keeping things quiet. We'll deal with everything else further down the line." Kit said and moments later her phone started going off and she saw that she had a new message.

_We have an urgent case in Jacksonville, wheels up in an hour so we'll meet you at the airstrip and Morgan's got your ready bag – JJ._

"Problem hermana?" Lex quipped.

"Yeah, team's just caught a case and it seems like I'm going to North Carolina so I've got to run but I'll call you later, if not I'll stop by when I get back in town." Kit said as she bid goodbye to her brother and made her way back downstairs to grab her bag, which was still in the sunroom with her mother and Chief Strauss.

"Katherine?" Cornelia began as she watched Kit pick up her bag and sling it over her shoulders. "Leaving so soon? I was just about to ask if you wanted me to fix you something to eat."

"As much as I'd love that mom I've gotta go, team's just caught a case and I need to go and meet them at the airstrip. So I need to drop my car back off at the office and then catch a ride to the jet but don't worry I'll call or text you later… and it was nice to see you Chief Strauss." Kit said before making her way out of the door, it took her longer than to get back to Quantico so that she ended up being late in getting to the airfield. "Sorry I'm late…"

"It's fine, you were dealing with your family." Hotch said as Kit slid into the seat next to Rossi.

"How's Alex doing?" Rossi questioned.

"Good. He's tired and all but over all he's great but you'll guess who was at my mom's house when I went to drop off Lex's medication… Chief Strauss." Kit announced much to the surprise of the others.

"Chief Strauss was at your parents house?" JJ slowly asked.

"Yep. In the sunroom having tea with my mother and listening when my mother offered to whip me up lunch and was calling me sweetheart and darling, it was all very weird…" Kit noted.

"Why though?" Emily asked.

"Um… she wanted to check on and see how my brother was doing… No doubt about it she was kissing my mom's ass to get to Jack." Kit said before quietly murmuring the last part of that to Rossi who snorted in amusement and Kit had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing too.


	18. Chapter 18

"It's your birthday in nineteen days." Reid pointed out to Kit as the two of them went over various police flies is hopes of looking for a previous victims of their UnSub. They had been called to Jacksonville because they had three dead women all on their hands; all blonde women in their late thirties to mid forties who were mothers and had been beaten to death. They had already spent a day going over victimology and so far none of them really stood out and connected them. Two of the victims were separated and the other one had just gotten divorced. At first the team thought that they may be connected through a family councillor or divorce attorney's but they weren't so whilst the other's looked at some other leads, Kit and Reid were looking any assaults which fit the UnSub's mo.

"Nineteen days until I turn twenty eight, then it'll be two more years until I turn thirty." Kit said with a sigh, she knew that day was eventually coming as her brother turned thirty in december and he was older than her by just over two years.

"What's wrong with that?" Reid asked.

"Nothing I guess, it's just that means that when it comes to that time it would have been fifteen years since I graduated high school. Fifteen years, when I turn thirty. That is just weird to think about as that means I will have been with the bureau for ten years..." Kit replied.

"Technically it would be fifteen years when you turn thirty one as you were sixteen years old when you graduated Katherine." Reid couldn't help but point out.

"I know that handsome smarty pants but for half of my senior year I was fifteen! So there is a degree of truth to what I'm saying, but who am I to argue about this with you? Considering it's been fifteen years since you graduated high school seeing you were twelve when it happen." Kit retorted with a smug smile on her face.

"What do you want for your birthday?" Reid quietly asked despite the fact that the two of them were alone in the room that the team had been set up in by the captain of Jacksonville's PD investigation service had set them up in.

"Surprise me." Kit quipped as she put the file she was reading down in order to eat the orange that she peeled and as she ate she was met with an odd look by the good doctor/boyfriend. "What? Did I do something or have you figured everything out like the handsome genius you are?"

"Kit your eating an orange. You don't like oranges, you prefer pears and apples to oranges." Reid pointed out and Kit couldn't help but laugh, she had never indirectly said that she didn't like oranges but she did tend to avoid them. Kit had to admit that she was impressed that Reid knew that but then again she was impressed with everything he did especially how he figured out how the observatory was her favourite place in the entire world.

"But you like oranges." Kit replied as she passed Reid the other half of her orange, the way she saw it was that she liked Reid, he liked oranges and so she'd give them a chance and to be honest they weren't too bad. They just didn't taste as nice as an apple or a pear.

Reid just looked at Kit for another few moments before deciding to speak. "You've been really happy recently."

"And that's a bad thing, why?" Kit questioned as she put her orange down so she could give Reid her full attention. She was full invested in this conversation now and why it was weird that she was happy.

"It's not. It's just nice to see you happy again after everything."

"I am happy. What's not to be happy about? My world momentarily came crashing down and there were a few dark and scary times but everything is better now. Lex is at home recovering and getting stronger by the day, my family are still dysfunctional as ever but that normalcy for us, work is going fine and then I have an amazing boyfriend who is quite simply… amazing. To put it, so what's not to be happy about?" Kit questioned and her response caused Reid to blush.

"Have you found anything yet?" Reid asked as he moved the conversation along to something else entirely.

"I have some potential ones but nothing that screams out that I'm going to progress to killing mothers by beating them with my bare hands." Kit began as she watched Reid pick up another file and whiz through it. "Most of these attacks are results of domestic abuse, muggings and assaults but none of these have the violent nature of our UnSub."

"You think we're wasting out time looking through these files?" Reid questioned.

"Maybe. I'm starting to think that maybe this guy didn't progress from assaults to full on beatings, I think that he already had violent tendencies and whatever his stressor is, it just completely set him off. However I am positive that these women do represent some in his life." Kit wearily replied.

"Well the profile we have is incomplete at the moment Katherine."

"I know that Spencer this women represent someone in the UnSub's life and the obvious could be a mother seeing as he is killing mothers." Kit said as she resumed eating her orange as her and Reid kept bouncing ideas off each other.

"–He's not a family annihilator as they typically kill ones own family and the spouses of all the victims all have alibis at the time of the murders. The UnSub specifically targets and he kills the mothers when he knows that the children won't be there…"

"Reid you're a genius." Kit said as she stood up from her seat as made her way over the drawing board. "Like you said he's not an annihilator because he only targets the mothers and I think I know why. It's because of the children; I think our UnSub is a father."

"What makes you think that?" Reid asked.

"You said it yourself this UnSub only kills the mothers when he knows the children won't be there. If you think about it Reid it makes perfect sense, because no good parent would willing expose their child to something this horrendous. The reason the UnSub waits is because he's protecting the children of the mother's he's about to kill, parents have an innate drive to protection their children and even though these aren't his kids, the UnSub doesn't want them to witness something that…"


	19. Chapter 19

After Kit and Reid came up with the theory of the UnSub being a parent that changed everything but luckily as they were still working on a profile, it didn't' affect the profile that they were working on too much. But it made things much harder because finding a male parent in Jacksonville who was capable of beating three women into a bloody pulp was very difficult, even with the amazing talents of Garcia and the geographical profile that Reid had come up with. That was until 1am when the team got pulled back in because another woman had been attacked. "What do you know?" Hotch asked Det. Lee Mathers, the lead detective on the case.

"Just like the others. Lorraine Walker, single mother currently going through a divorce in her late thirties with blonde hair attacked on her way home after going out with some friends. Miraculously she survived…" Det. Mathers began.

"She survived?" Rossi asked sceptically as that didn't fit the mo of the UnSub.

"Barely. It's touch and go at the moment according to the doctors as she's in surgery. The only reason that she's currently still alive is because the UnSub was interrupted by a passer by who managed to get a good look at his face. We already have him with the department sketch artist, and we should have the sketch in matter of moments."

"Okay after that Morgan, you and Kit will go and speak to Lorraine Walker's husband, check his alibi and find everything you can about his wife and whether someone wanted her dead." Hotch began. "JJ, no doubt the press will be all over this so we're going to have to release a statement."

"–Hotch we don't even have a complete profile yet." Prentiss mentioned.

"The press know we're here, if we don't say anything then they'll speak for us and send everyone into a panic." Hotch reasoned.

JJ nodded. "I'll get to work with the press."

"Dave, you and Prentiss talk to the witness and find out everything you can about the attack and see if anything stands out and Reid, see if the spot where Lorraine Walker fits into your geographical profile. It most likely will but let's just make sure." Hotch continued before he was interrupted by a person who handed Det. Mathers a piece of paper, which they all presumed to be the sketch of the attacker.

"This is him." Det. Mathers said as he placed the sketch on the table.

"I'll send a copy to Garcia and see what she can do with it." JJ replied.

Kit stopped in her tracks and looked closer at the sketch, it was of a man in his late thirties to his early forties, with a short haircut, narrow eyes and a nose that looked like it had been broken at least twice. But it was the mole on his left cheek that struck Kit and she realized that she recognized that face. "I know him."

"Excuse me?" Hotch asked.

Kit hadn't even realized that she had said that last bit out loud for everyone to hear. "This guy, I know him. I've met him somewhere but I cannot recall his name at the moment. Damn!"

"Are you sure Kit?" Morgan asked.

"Positive, I remember the mole and the crooked nose. It was along time ago, but I knew this guy." Kit stated as she made her way to the nearest phone and dialled a number before putting it on speaker. The phone rang a couple of time before someone finally picked up. "Garcia, you there?"

"What do you need Goldilocks?"

"The sketch that JJ just sent you, will you be able to run this sketch through your facial recognition programme?" Kit asked as her memory became clearer of where she knew this man from the more she thought about.

"Yeah but it's gonna take some time, even for me but if I had some perimeters to narrow down the search then it would help an awful lot and quicken the search time." Garcia quipped.

Kit nodded, that was something but she was certain she could help narrow things down other than saying that she knew the guy as Kit could now remember exactly why she was certain that she knew the attacker. "Start with the military. You're going to have to search active personnel, reserves and anyone whose retired within the recent five years. If this guy is our UnSub then he is in the military."

"Kit are you sure?" Hotch asked sceptically.

"I know he is. That's where I know him from, I'm pretty certain that he is a marine." Kit told Hotch before turning her attention back to Garcia who was still on the line. "Garcia? I need you to also get General Daniel Swanson on the line and I need you to stay on the line as well."

"Sure thing goldilocks." Garcia replied.

"The General?" Rossi questioned and Kit just nodded her head before handing the sketch and a number to JJ and asking her to fax the sketch to the number she just gave her.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he can help." Kit began, she realized it was unconventional to call her dad whilst in the middle of a case but she knew he was the only one who could help them, before she was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing again before it was finally picked up.

"Hello?" A gruff voice replied and clearly Kit had just woken her father up and he was kind of groggy about it. One thing that father and daughter both loved to do was sleeping and they both hated being interrupted by a good night's sleep.

"Dad it's Kit, sorry to wake you but I'm on a case and we need you help, you need to go downstairs to your office, my colleague just faxed you over a sketch and I really need you to help me identify who the person is in the sketch." Kit slowly began.

"You sure I'll be able to help you Kit-Kat." General Swanson replied and Kit just let her head hang in shame as her colleagues, which included her boyfriend had just heard her dad call her by her childhood nickname.

"Your on speaker dad… but whatever, I know that you'll be able to help us but I need you to get to your office." Kit said and her father didn't reply instead all that was heard was the sound of him going down the stairs and a door being opened.

"Okay Katherine, the fax is coming through so what's this all about?"

"Do you remember about six months after we returned from Camp Courtney you caught me playing poker in the rec room with a couple of lance corporals?" Kit questioned.

"Yes. I remember that incident rather well."

"When you came in there was another officer with you and that's what I need your help with. As you can probably see by now the fax is a sketch of him and I can't remember his name and it would technical analyst time to try and id him but I knew you would remember who he was. Dad I know he's a marine and you look out for your own but we need to find him, he's a potential suspect in a our case and he just assaulted a woman whose in the hospital having surgery…"

"Private First Class Robert Kessler." General Swanson announced. "That's who you're looking for and that's the rank he held during the poker incident, he was a Lance Corporal when you left for college and he was based here at Quantico for a few more years before being moving to a different base. Where he is now and what rank he now holds I couldn't tell you…"

"Garcia, you get that?" Kit questioned.

"Robert Kessler of the United States Marine Corps. I'll get back to you when I have something." Garcia replied.

"General is there anything you can tell us about Robert?" Rossi asked.

"Not much Dave, it's been fourteen years and I've seen a lot of people come and go in that time but from what I can recall he was a good marine. He got on well with others and apart from the odd shenanigans there was no problems with him."

"Thanks dad, you've been a real help and sorry for waking you up. Um… I love you and I'll speak to you when I get back home." Kit said as she ended the phone call with her father and took a deep breath. "Garcia, do you have anything?"

"The then Private First Class is now Staff Sergeant Robert Kessler, he's forty two years old and based at Camp Lejeune in Onslow County which isn't too far from where you are. Finances are okay for the most part, a couple of credit cards and savings have dipped recently. He's married to Laura Kessler who is a blonde I might add and they've been married for ten years and had two children Jamie, 8 and Sophie, 5. But here's the kicker, his wife has just filled for divorce and she wants sole legal and physically custody of the kids." Garcia explained.

"There's the stressor, wife leaves him but then she wants to take his kids away from him." Emily began. "It explains his victimology, targeting mother's who are estranged from their husband and it's safe to assume that the father's have limited or next to no contact with their children–"

"That would be correct." Garcia added.

"Fit's the profile, we said that we were looking for a white male between the ages of twenty and forty five whose very physically strong and capable of handling himself. We thought he might be a boxer, we never considered the possibility of a military background–" Morgan stated.

"The marines don't teach you to box, they teach you to fight. This guy is probably very adept at hand to hand combat given by the savage beatings…" Kit murmured.

"But why beat the women to death?" JJ asked.

"C'mon seriously? This guy's marriage is over and he's about to lose his kids, I'd be pretty pissed off if I was him and I'd be mad enough to hit somebody especially as he knows that his wife will most likely custody as the courts tend to side with the mother during custody battles." Rossi noted.

"Whatever the case we need to find Robert Kessler and his wife, she's clearly the source of all his rage and eventually he's going to go after her."


	20. Chapter 20

Things didn't' exactly work out the way the team wanted it to, after several hours they had located Staff Sergeant Kessler and his wife. They were both at the supermarket where he had armed and had taken several people along with his wife hostage. "So far we have twenty confirmed hostages included Laura Kessler and any attempts to negotiate with SSgt Kessler have ended well. He's threatening to kill everyone if we don't leave…" Det. Mathers began from the safety of the barricade.

"He's escalating, he's got the object off all his rage and now he's completely disregarded his mo. Now he's armed with hostages and if we're not carefully we will them all if that's what he thinks will let him keep his children." Morgan said.

"What do we do?"

"We send Agent Swanson in to negotiate with him." Hotch announced much to the surprise of Kit.

"Me? What not Rossi? Or even you Hotch? I can't negotiate this, I'm emotionally involved…" Kit asked because firstly Rossi practically wrote the book on hostage negations or if not him then Hotch as he could empathise with the UnSub. She knew the UnSub, he had worked with her father and they had lived on the same base together.

"This is a unique situation and there is a personal connection, which will make it easier for you to talk to Robert Kessler but you are more qualified to handle this, you did spend three years with the bureau's crisis negotiation unit and I've seen your work." Hotch told her.

"Dave?" Kit said slowly as she turned to Rossi and apparently he seemed to support the idea too. She had somehow manage to forget that she was trained in negotiations as she worked as a crisis negotiator for three years prior to joining the BAU, which made it all the more surprising that she forgot given the amount of crap she received when she worked at CNU,

"I'm here if you need me but you can do this kiddo, I know you cam do this Katherine." Rossi assured her.

Kit took a couple of steps back and placed her hands on her head. "Okay as far as I can see I need to use the marine connection to establish a rapport with him but to do that I'm going to have to go in. I can identify myself as the daughter of his former commanding officer over the phone, it has to be a person."

"A-are you sure about that?" Reid squeaked.

"Yeah I am. I could be anyone so he has to see me." Kit replied with a small smile, Reid was worried about her but trying not to be so obvious about it.

"Will he remember you?" Emily asked.

"The last time I saw him was twelve years ago when I was leaving for college but he'll remember me, I haven't changed too much since then. The General's pretty well liked over at Quantico and everyone knows about the poker incident, so he should recall otherwise I have stories that only someone who had on that base would know about." Kit replied as she pulled her hair into a ponytail.

"Morgan, you'll go in with Kit and be her support and if you think things are south, you pull her out of there. Is that clear?"

"Yes.

Taking a deep breath Kit unholstered her bureau gun and handed it over to Reid, she couldn't say anything sentimental that would give away the status of their relationship not to mention they were in the middle of a case. "Take care of this, I'll be coming back for it."

"Kit you ready for this?" Morgan asked and Kit nodded, so with a small smile they made their way away from the barricade and towards the supermarket. Once they reached the door, they chimed open as they made their way in.

"Who is that? Get out of here! I don't want to talk to any of you!" The sound of a man yelling came from within the store.

Staying put at the front door Kit took a deep breath before she began. "SSgt. Robert Kessler my name is Agent Katherine Swanson and I'm with the FBI, I've been sent in here to talk to you and see if I can help resolve this situation so everyone can leave here unharmed."

"I've told the police already that I don't want to talk to some stranger who pretends to know and understand me! I was serious about killing all of these people!" Robert yelled.

Kit looked at Morgan and motioned to go forward and the two of them made their way further into the store to where they came to a large open area of the supermarket where SSgt. Kessler was standing there armed, along with his twenty hostages who were sitting on the floor. "I get that, the police come in and send someone in to talk to you and they try to be your best friend and that is the last thing that you want. But here's the thing SSgt. Kessler, I was sent in here because I do know or at least I used to. About twelve years ago…"

"What are you talking about!" Robert demanded as he pointed his gun directly at Kit.

"Like I said my name is Katherine Swanson and we've met before… I'm the daughter of General Daniel Swanson of the United States Marine Corps but back then he was Gunnery Sergeant Swanson to you, when you were stationed at Quantico all those years ago." Kit announced.

"Your Gunny Swanson's eldest daughter?" Robert asked using a softer tone of voice.

"That I am." Kit replied.

"And now he's a General?"

"Yeah he is, all those years of hard work have finally paid off… he's still based at Quantico now and he's happy with what he's doing and I'm incredibly proud of him." Kit stated.

"Proud? Agent Swanson, your dad was the greatest officer that I have ever served under but I admired him most for being a parent and raising you on base. He was so proud of you especially when you got into college at the age of sixteen and at Dartmouth of all places…"

"He was and still is… But Robert we need to talk about this, what's going on in this room. You have several civilians hostage including your own wife." Kit began. "I know that you are a good marine who loved his county and most importantly you love your children and you don't want to hurt any of these people."

"She's trying to take my children!" Robert shrieked.

"I know about the divorce proceedings and how Laura wants full custody of Jamie and Sophia but this isn't the way to keep your children. This isn't the way to go about keeping your family, you have to see that Robert…"

"They are my family, I get that and you don't want to lose them…"

"This isn't like your family Agent Swanson, your mother didn't take you away from your father. Did you know that Laura has been seeing someone else? That she's going to have some other man raise MY CHILDREN!"

"Just because your wife Laura is involved with someone else it does not change the fact that Jamie and Sophie are your children Robert, you will always be their father. And the reason I know this is because two years after my parents divorced, my mother had remarried and just had twins with my stepfather. Now he's a good man, a great father and husband to my mother. I won't hesitate to admit that I do love him but that doesn't the fact that my father is Daniel Swanson. You will always be Jamie and Sophie's dad and they won't forget that you're their father and nobody can ever replace you." Kit replied.

"I-I can't let that happen, I won't let that happen." Robert began.

"Yes you can Staff Sergeant, just put the gun down and we can all walk out of here…"

Robert shook his head. "After what I've done? There's no coming back from it, I will lose everything! My rank, my job and my family. I can't leave here."

"But you can't stay in here forever Robert and you can't keep Laura and all these innocent people in here. Your kids need both of their mother and father, not to mention these people in here probably have their own families who'd they'd very much like to get home to."

"I'll be in prison for the rest of my life, I'll never see my children again…"

"You don't know what and there's the possibility that Jamie and Sophie can come and visit you in prison. It won't be the end…" Kit said as despite everything, she really felt for the man. He was doing all of this for his family, despite how far he had gone to keep them.

"This wasn't how it was supposed to be, I was supposed to serve my country, have a family and I won't have either and I won't have my kids see me like this… I'm sorry Agent Swanson." Robert uttered as he directed his gun away from Kit and looked at his wife. "Tell Jamie and Sophie, I love them…"

"Robert don't…" Kit stated but it was too late, he pressed the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger and the gunshot went off and moments later Staff Sergeant Robert Kessler's dead body fell to the ground.

What happened next was a bit of a blur to Kit, she remembered most of what happened like alerting the rest of the team to the fact that the situation had been contained and getting the hostages out of the supermarket. Kit could recall most of that and then when she came out of the building and the paramedics went inside. Kit could recall making her way over to her teammates and Reid gently brushing over her thumb with his knuckles as he handed her gun back over. Then Kit found herself standing by herself in the car park away from the others, watching as Robert Kessler's body was being brought out. "It's not your fault kiddo…"

Kit didn't have to look to see that it was Rossi. "Sure it is, I was sent into here to resolve the situation and a man ended up killing himself, it was my fault if I hadn't have gone in to talk to him…"

"He was going to kill himself anyway regardless of whether Hotch or I had gone in instead of you. He knew that after what he had done, there was a next to nothing chance that he would see his children again. We can't save everyone Katherine, you know that but minimal loss is acceptable in what we do. In all the cases you worked at CNU how many died?" Rossi questioned.

"Twenty nine." Kit admitted.

"Okay so twenty nine died but think of the countless lives you saved especially today. Robert Kessler probably would have killed several of those hostages not to mention his wife. You saved them all, Jamie and Sophie Kessler still have their mother because of you Katherine…"


	21. Chapter 21

Reid sat on the jet playing cards with Morgan as the team made their way back, the case was over and whatever was left could be handled Jacksonville PD. But that wasn't what was worrying him, it was Kit. This whole thing with Kessler was obviously getting to her, which was naturally seeing as a man had just killed himself in front of her. "Pretty boy, it's your turn…" Morgan began.

"Oh sorry." Reid quietly replied as she picked up a card and wearily glanced at it before putting down and his eyes diverted back to where Kit was sitting with Rossi or rather sleeping with her head against his shoulder.

"Okay so what is? What's got the boy genius so worried that he can't even beat me at cards?" Morgan asked as he put down his cards and when Reid didn't reply he looked in the direction of Reid line of sight and figured it all out. "You worried about Kit. Don't worry about it pretty boy, Rossi's taking care of her and you know how close those two are."

Reid slowly nodded, he knew that Kit and Rossi were extremely close and he was practically family to her considering she had known him most of his life. Him along with her stepfather was the reason that she joined the FBI, Kit also had the honour of being one of the few people to merit an invite to Rossi's mansion and he knew that the two of them had dinner together every so often. "I know but she's our friend… what exactly happened in there?"

"She did the best with what she had, I honestly thought that Kit was going to get Kessler to give up and it looked like it for a brief moment too. We all thought that their past connection would be able to coax Kessler into giving up but he realized that it was the end for him. The idea of losing his kids was too much for him, Kit tried to convince him but he was too far gone for him to be saved…" Morgan explained.

"Are you worried about her?" Reid asked.

"Kit just watched someone she knew kill themselves in front of her so yeah I am a bit worried but she'll be okay." Morgan stated.

"I guess your right then." Reid said nodding in agreement as that's all he could really say, him and Kit were keeping their relationship a secret from the rest of the team due to the bureau's rules of dating other bureau employee's. So he could only show much concern for his girlfriend in public, if they both wanted to keep their jobs. But he was really worried about Kit, she had barely said more than ten words since they left the crime scene apart form when Rossi had spoken to her. She had just through the whole traumatic incident of her brother's attack and now this. It just seemed like she couldn't catch a break.

"I am Reid." Morgan assured him.

Reid still wasn't convinced but he said nothing else on the matter, when the team got back to Quantico Kit was pulled into some kind of debriefing with Hotch and Rossi in Hotch's office and once it was over she grabbed her stuff and left. After he had left work Reid had tried calling her several times but every time it went to voicemail and the idea of going to her place crossed his mind. But the most logical thing was to give her space and she'd come as soon as she was ready. And apparently that was sooner than he expected as an hour after he got home, Kit arrived at his apartment. "Hey…"

"Hi." Kit wearily replied as she put her bag down the floor and looked around the room and Reid could tell by the fact that she was fiddling with her fingers that she felt very uncomfortable.

"I tried calling you." He slowly stated.

"I know."

"I was going to stop by your place–"

"I wasn't there, I was at my dad's… I promised him I'd stop by when I was back in town and I ended up staying longer than I expected." Kit began as she walked around the apartment and took of her jumper before she made her way back over to Reid and took him off guard when she kissed him.

"Kit?" Reid questioned but Kit didn't respond instead she undid his watch and put it on his coffee table before coming back and undoing his cardigan and tie. There was a brief moment of pause where she stopped and looked at him before continuing where she left off, kissing him slowly and carefully as she started to undo his shirt buttons one by one. Reid wasn't sure what to make of all this but he knew where this was heading and it wasn't like he was afraid as Kit was his girlfriend and they had been sexually intimate with each other plenty of time, it was just that he was worried about her frame of mind. "Katherine, we shouldn't be doing this we really should really talk about today…"

"I get it, okay? I watched a man that I knew twelve years ago kill himself in front of me today! I know that he killed himself Spencer, I was there in the room when he put the gun to his temple and blew off his head." Kit snapped and Reid had take a step back, he knew everything wasn't fine and it was all coming out now despite Kit's best efforts to bottle it up. "I'm sorry Spencer. I should have snapped like that. I know that your worried and you think we should talk about it and yeah we probably should but that's all I've done since Robert Kessler killed himself. I've spoken to Rossi, both Rossi and Hotch then my dad, I've talked to them all about today and I know that I'm going to be sent to the bureau shrink because it's procedure and I will have to talk about it again and again. But I just don't want to talk about it. Tonight, I just want to be with my boyfriend."

Reid felt his cheeks become increasingly warmer and he took a rather large gulp before he took a couple of steps forward and carefully took Kit's hand, he wasn't sure whether this was the most appropriate thing to be doing but he'd do anything to make Kit feel better. "Okay."


	22. Chapter 22

Walking out of the bathroom Kit walked into Reid's living room dressed in one of her old Dartmouth t-shirts and plaid pyjama bottoms with her tied up and still slightly wet from the shower she just had. As quietly as possible Kit crept up the couch where Reid was sitting reading a book and placed a kiss on his cheek, which caused the good doctor's cheeks to flush pink. Kit found the fact that any form of affection from her flustered Reid very sweet and endearing. "Dr. Reid, why on are you reading the same book I saw you read last week if you've got it memorized already with that eidetic memory of yours?"

"Referencing." Reid replied as put his book down as Kit came and sat down next to him. "And just because I have it memorized doesn't mean I enjoy reading the actual book itself."

"That makes sense, I suppose given that Garcia says that you live in the technological dark days." Kit chucked as she moved closer to Reid and leant her head against his shoulder, the two of them fit nicely together as they were two parts of something and only whole when they were together.

"Are you looking forward to your birthday tomorrow?" Reid asked and Kit just pulled a face at the mention of her inevitable 28th birthday as not only did she have to work but she had plans with her family and sadly Reid couldn't join them.

"I feel bad that you can't come to this dinner I'm having with my family, I know you've met them all already but if they got to know you as my boyfriend and not just my co-workers they'd simply love you, especially my dad." Kit said with a sigh that was the downside of having a secret relationship. Not being able to be open about any of it with the people who they cared about, although Kit's brother's and sister were all fully aware of the relationship between their sister and Reid.

"Kit you know why that can't happen, the bureau have strict rules about dating other bureau employee's and your step father just so happens to be the director of the FBI and given that we work on the same team, if he found out he'd have to force one of us to transfer out so not appear as showing favouritism." Reid explained.

"I know, it's just that it's not fair but I was on the phone with Gabe and we were talking about this whole situation and he suggested a dinner party. You, me and my brothers and sisters all at his apartment. That way you can meet part of my family in an official capacity and we can just be ourselves. No hiding, just Kit and Spencer." Kit offered and once she had finished she took a baited breath as the first time Reid had met her family it wasn't under the most normal circumstances. Not to mention how kit frequently spoke about them, they were her family and she loved them but no means did it mean that were normal. In fact, they were far from it. Given the stories that she had told Reid, Kit was certain that she had scared him off.

"Sounds good." Reid admitted.

Kit was taken aback by this, she didn't think Reid would agree to that so easily. "W-well we'd have to wait until Lex can leave the house for longer than an hour, my mom is still over protective mode because of the whole brain surgery thing and she lets him out for an hour at a time to do gentle exercise."

"It's good to hear that your brother is slowly getting back on his feet but what about you Kit, how are you doing? You haven't really spoken about the sessions with the bureau shrink over what happened to Robert Kessler." Reid questioned.

"Okay I guess I don't know, I only have more left before the mandatory sessions are over." Kit said over a pout, because of the whole Robert Kessler thing she had been forced to attend three sessions with the bureau's shrink but as the team kept getting called out in the last two weeks Kit had only been to two of them. And one of them took place the day before yesterday and the first one was two days after Robert Kessler killed himself.

"What do you mean?"

Kit sighed as she glanced over to Reid, the whole being honest and talking about things was a big part of them now. They didn't keep secrets anymore and they had gotten all the big bad secrets out there a few weeks ago such as Reid's former drug problem. "The shrink is doing the whole trying to get into my brain thing and analyze my behaviour and I'm sitting there thinking to myself, does she not realize that I'm a profiler? I can see what she's doing a mile away as my job is analyzing people's behaviour just with the fancy degree…"

"Kit she's just trying to help." Reid couldn't help but point out much to the bemusement of Kit.

"This coming from the guy whose out of his yearly evaluations in twenty minutes because he uses his various doctorates as a second opinion, which is funny as I recall that none of them are medical degrees."

"But I am a doctor." Reid smugly stated.

He had a point there so Kit decided to reward her boyfriend a kiss on the cheek for his very smart ass yet funny comment. "And a very handsome one at that, I'd much prefer you do my session then the whack job that the bureau has as she's really doing my head with all this comparison stuff with my family situation and Robert Kessler's."

"Comparisons?"

"Yeah because apparently my dad's life and SSgt. Kessler's were very similar with them both being marines and being married before getting divorced and losing custody of their children. The shrink kept asking me all there what if questions, such as what if it was my dad who had killed of those women and it just got me really frustrated and she pushing and well I kind of snapped..." Kit admitted.

"You lost your temper with the bureau's shrink?" Reid slowly asked and Kit could see that the corners of his mouth were starting to twitch in amusement.

"I know it was a stupid thing to do and I was playing right into my hand but she kept asking me what if my dad was the serial killer and I lost it. I pointed out that my dad wasn't a serial killer and did not murder three women with his bare hands and proceed to put another woman in a medically induced coma for a week. My dad is a good man Spencer, he would never do something like that." Kit sourly stated.

"I know that." Reid assured Kit as he put his arm around her and Kit leaned in closer to him.

"My dad has had extensive training in hand to hand combat and he is fully capable of killing someone with a gun or his bare hands but he would never do what Robert Kessler did. And that shrink saying something like that just made me mad! I know I'm probably over reacting…" Kit said.

"No your not…"

"Thank you." Kit replied before taking a deep breath, Kit was certain that she had been over reacting but having Reid on her side was very nice not to mention comforting. "The idea has crossed my mind a couple of times, I'd think what the hell would have happened to my dad if my mom didn't allow my dad access to us or if I hadn't had have gone back to live with him? My dad's cool and everything but the divorced almost destroyed him and them living over sea's for two years and not seeing all the time must have been hard on him. The most important thing to my dad other than being a marine is his children, and whilst he loves Lex and Sammy like his own, it's Gabe, Maddy and I who are his actual children. He loves us so much and would do anything and everything for us, so have some lady come in and question his character made me really mad."

"I would be too if someone said things like that about my mom, maybe you should get your stepfather to fire her…?" Reid suggested.

"Tried that already, whilst Jack sympathized and said she was out of order he said that she was only doing her job and he can't fire her just because I don't like her. Called it unfair dismissal or something like that…"


	23. Chapter 23

When Kit woke up the next morning, she was surprised to see that Reid wasn't in bed with her and when she heard noise coming from the outside and so climbing out of bed Kit walked into Reid's living room and saw him standing in the kitchen with various items. Making her way over to him Kit wrapped her arms around him and standing on her tiptoes she placed her chin on his shoulder, which startled Reid and caused Kit to laugh. "Handsome, what are you doing?"

"Kit, go back to bed!" Reid cried out.

Okay that wasn't the response that Kit was hoping for especially from Reid off all people. "Why?"

"Because I'm trying to make you breakfast in bed and you being out of bed makes the point rather redundant." Reid rambled and Kit's heart melted, how she ended up with quite honestly the sweetest guy in the world amazed her not to mention how hell someone else hadn't snatched Reid up earlier was beyond her imagination. "I-I was going to make you pancakes but considering last time, I made the logical decision not to…

Kit noted the slight burning of Reid's cheeks at the mention of making pancakes, one morning she had decided to teach Reid how to make pancakes, as he couldn't cook to save his life due to the fact he really didn't get the practical part of cooking. Long story short they had gotten _distracted_ and Kit's kitchen took the brunt of it, which Kit took full responsibility for her as it was her fault entirely as she was the one who distracted Reid from the task at hand. Pancakes were never made in the end but they did find something to do with their time. "That is very adorable Reid but you don't have to do that, you could just come back to bed with me and we can grab breakfast on out way into work."

"Kit…" Reid began as Kit turned him around to face her.

"Didn't Morgan tell you never to argue with a woman who carried a gun?" Kit argued as she moved her arms away from Reid's waist to around his neck. "So if you take logic reason into this, you should stop what you're doing and do what I say because I am a woman and I do carry a gun–"

"–Your not carrying right now. Your gun is in my bedside drawer, right next to my gun. So logically I can carry on making your breakfast Katherine as you are not currently armed." Reid couldn't help but point out and Kit couldn't help but smirk but as she looked into Reid's gorgeous brown eyes she felt the oh so familiar flutter of butterflies in her stomach whenever he so much as looked at her. She had the adorably but very handsome socially awkward boyfriend who decided to surprise her yet again with a very sweet and romantic kiss, which was quickly becoming something more. That was until Kit's phone went off.

"Ignore it…" Kit murmured, trying to get Reid to focus on the task at hand but apparently he was having none of it as she tried to make his way over to her phone. However Kit wasn't going to make it that easy and kept her arms wrapped around his neck, so they ended up stumbling around the living room together until they fell onto the couch.

"It's your mom." Reid told her looked at her phone that was sitting on the coffee table.

"Mood killer…" Kit said groaning, those were so not the words that she wanted to hear so early in the morning especially from Reid off all people when he was lying on top of her. Reid made his way to get up but Kit pulled him back and she laughed at his adorable yet cute expression before reaching for the phone on the table and pressing her fingers to her lips to let Reid know to be quiet Kit answered the phone, put it on speaker before placing it on the coffee table. "Good morning mom!"

"Good morning to you Katherine especially on today of all days, happy birthday my darling daughter!" Cornelia Flicker said over the phone.

"Thank you mommy! It means a lot coming from you of all people today considering that it is twenty eight years to the day that you gave birth to me. That's very impressive mom, you should be awfully proud of yourself!" Kit quipped

"Well judging by how happy you, I didn't call you too early. I was afraid that you may still be sleeping."

"No just lying on the couch, I got bored of making breakfast." Kit said as best she could without laughing as that wasn't exactly the entire truth of the matter. Kit had indeed been in the process of having breakfast be made for her until she got bored of it. But she couldn't tell her mother that her boyfriend was currently lying on top of her. Mother and daughter were close, but not that close.

"You are still coming to dinner tonight?" Cornelia questioned.

"Should be, unless the team get called out on a case but I'll keep you updated through out the day mom. So don't go to extravagant mom, I know you love me and all but just keep it simple except for the wine. I look good wine. " Kit replied

Cornelia Flicker laughed in amusement. "Don't I know it darling, but I should let you get going. If I want you to come home tonight, you're going to have to go to work."

"Okay mom, thanks for the call. I relay appreciate it, I love you."

"I love you too Katherine."

Kit stifled a giggle before ending the call and turning her attention back to Reid. "Sorry about that, it's just this thing that my mom and I do. When I was kid she was always the first person to wish me a happy birthday, I'd wake up and she'd be there. When I moved in with dad she'd call me and we keep doing it…"

"It's nice." Reid assured her. "The two of you seem really close, despite the fact that you claim that the two of you argue more than any normal mother and daughter. It's obvious the two of you love each other very much."

"Yeah we do… but Reid?"

"Yeah."

"Let's stop talking about my mom."


	24. Chapter 24

"Katherine, we haven't seen you in sometime now I think this is the first dinner you've turned up to since you in a month." Cornelia Fickler began and Kit resisted the urge to roll her eyes, her mother knew exactly how long it had been since her daughter had turned up to the last family dinner. It had been just under three weeks because the last family dinner she turned up to had just been after her body.

"Well I've been busy with work mom." Kit began.

"So that means you don't have time for your family? When Jack worked for this BAU unit of yours he still made it home for most of our family details."

"Things have changed since then dear." Jack added.

Kit smiled at her stepfather's attempt to hold out a lifejacket to her. "Exactly mom, the BAU isn't a nine to five job it's full time, just like crisis negotiation I can get called in any time of day and when I'm not working I'm either sleeping or trying to salvage what I can of an actual life." Or spending time with Spencer, Kit thought but chose not to say that part out loud, her mom would have a field day with that.

"There's something you're not telling us Katherine, you could see us more if you simply tried harder." Cornelia pressed. "There's a man involved in this isn't there."

How the hell did she know that? She was right but Kit wasn't going to have this conversation here of all places in front of her stepfather who just so happened to her boss. "Mom I don't know what you are talking about." Kit replied.

"Yes you do Katherine."

"Look mom, can we not do this right now? I came to have dinner with my family not be profiled by my mother." Kit said as she continued to eat, wondering why on earth she was given a mother who could detect lies a mile off.

"Why are you so against us knowing who this man is? Do we know who this man is?"

"Cornelia, if Katherine doesn't want to talk about that you shouldn't press her about it she'll tell us when she's ready." Jack says and Kit literally thanked god that Jack married her mom and he was pretty good with dealing with her nonsense otherwise she probably would never see her family.

"You work with him don't you? This man that you're seeing works at the bureau, doesn't he?" Cornelia announced to the whole table and Kit's family all turned to look at her and instead of answering she threw her napkin on to her plate and walked out of the dining room. Making her way through the house Kit went into the hallway closet and grabbed her jacket. "Katherine!"

Looking up Kit saw that her mom and Gabriel had come out of the dining room, her had clearly come to tell her to not make a scene and Gabe had come to make sure things didn't get out of hand. Ignoring her mother Kit put on her jacket and pulled on her coat. "What mom?"

"Where are you going? We're having dinner, it's rude to leave."

"Where do you think I'm going mom? Is it not clear that I'm leaving?" Kit retorted as she picked up her bag, her mother was so dense at times.

"Why?

Kit was getting a headache from being around her mom, she loved her but bloody hell this woman knew no bounds. Kit knew it was a bad idea coming today. "For god's sake mom trying using your brain, you've been married to an FBI agent for the last twenty years! Surely you must have picked up something from Jack after all these years."

"You know that I chose not to go into detail into yours and Jack's line of work."

"So? I knew most of the FBI handbook by the time I was sixteen." Kit began but when she saw this was going nowhere she tried a different approach with her mother. "I asked you not to do this and to drop the subject but you wouldn't and you kept pushing the topic although both Jack and I told you not to."

Cornelia rolled her eyes. "So now I'm not allowed to take an interest in my eldest daughter's life now?"

"Mom that is not what Kit is trying to say, she made it clear that she didn't want to talk about it but you kept pushing it and it's something that you do to all of us." Gabriel tried to explain to their mother.

"Now I'm a bad parent for wanting to know who my daughter is seeing?" Cornelia demanded.

"Because I work with him!" Kit hissed finally letting out the big bad secret. "You were right I am seeing someone I work with but the bureau have rules about fraternization and if anyone finds out one of us will be forced to transfer which is why I did not want to talk about this in front of Jack."

"Katherine, don't be so ridiculous Jack doesn't care about that."

"Ridiculous? Mom, you're married to the director of the FBI who happens to be my boss. If word gets out that his stepdaughter is disregarding the rules and seeing another agent he will have to step in and do something about it for both our careers. Jack can't play favourites mom, you know that and so do I. So you cannot say anything about this to Jack, not until I've figured something out."

"Gabriel go back to the table, let me have a word with Katherine in private." Cornelia said and Gabriel just looked at Kit and shrugged his shoulders before leaving the two of them. Mother and daughter just stood there for a few moments before Cornelia took Kit's hand and led her into the sunroom before proceeding to sit down on a couch. "Tell me Katherine and I want the truth."

"It's Dr. Reid and before you say anything mom I'll have you know that he is not a boy nor is he too young for me as I'm only seven months older than him. I admit that his people skills aren't that great and he does tend to ramble but he is the sweetest man I have ever met and–" Kit began.

"I wasn't going to say that Katherine, do you really think so little of me?" Cornelia interrupted.

"Mom…"

"I'll admit that he is different from your previous boyfriends as he is the only one that I've met even though it wasn't in an official capacity. But I remember him from the hospital and how he helped calm down Samantha, he seems nice although very shy on occasions but his academic achievements speak for themselves. A doctor at his age, is unbelievable…"

"About that mom, Spencer got his first PhD in maths when he was seventeen and he also holds PhD's in chemistry, engineering not mention B.A.s in psychology, sociology and he's working on one in sociology." Kit admitted.

"Wow." Cornelia Flicker admitted and even after this time Kit was still in awe of all her boyfriend's achievements. "So he's a genius to out it simply."

"Yes to put it simply, his IQ is 187 then he also has an eidetic memory and can ready 20,000 words a minute but he's very modest about it. Spencer doesn't believe that you can measure intelligence but it's amazing what he knows at his age. I was in my freshman year of college when I was seventeen and he had a PhD… He's incredible mom and not just because of how smart he is, he has these cute quirks of his and he gets this adorable look on his face when he's confused…

"Katherine are you in love with this boy?" Cornelia asked and the question actually floored Kit.

"Mom… don't be ridiculous." Kit stated.

"I'm not Kit, you've been so much happier than you usually are these last few months and until today I just would have put it down to your usual behaviour. But now that I know about you and Dr. Reid, it's obvious by the look on your face whenever you speak about him. Your in love with him Kit."

Kit wasn't sure what to say to this, Reid meant a lot to her of course he did. He was her boyfriend and one in a billion, there was no way she was ever going to find a socially awkward genius who somehow couldn't get dates but was an amazing kisser. A guy who couldn't cook, wore odd socks everyday and wore his watch on top of his shirts and jumpers because he didn't like the touch of the metal against his skin. Not to mention the fact that he loved his mother so much that he had to make the hardest decision in his life for the both of them and he still felt so guilty about it that he wrote her a letter everyday because he couldn't be there with her. "I don't know, maybe..."


	25. Chapter 25

For the next few weeks everything in Kit's life was grand and the only trouble she got was with whatever criminal the team were looking for. Even her mother was given her break after Reid and the fact that Lex and Sammy had heard back from the colleges they applied to. Both of them got into everyone one they applied, which was great news and so Lex was off to Harvard and Sammy was off to Princeton in the fall. So her world was all bright and shiny until today, where she got into work to find out about twenty people or so had contracted anthrax in a public park. Then her genius boyfriend went and locked himself in a room with it. "Hey… any news?" JJ questioned as Kit stood in the bullpen reading various amounts of papers as fast as she could.

"Um… Hotch is on his way back here, Nicholls is dead and Reid guesses that he's been dead for at least two days then he's found various things to suggest that he had an assistant whose gone rogue. Thus the one responsible for all this madness…" Kit said slowly and carefully.

"That's something." JJ replied.

"Any news on Reid?" Kit questioned as she fingered the silver locket Reid had given her for her birthday, trying her best to not lose her mind over this when her boyfriend was locked in a room with a strain of anthrax, which has already killed twelve people at the last count. If it wasn't for the fact that she could help find who was responsible for this, then she would have had a breakdown already. Kit knew that she was emotionally compromised given but this was Reid and he was infected with anthrax.

"Hazmat team have finished setting up the decontamination chamber for Reid when he comes out and the paramedics are on the scene waiting."

"That's good, it's something…" Kit began until the sound of her phone going off interrupted her and she looked at the caller id. _Reid._ Excusing herself, Kit made her way out of the BAU so she was away from the hustle and bustle from all the noise when she picked the phone up. "Spencer…"

"Katherine."

"Busy day today, huh handsome? Bet this wasn't what you were expecting when you woke up this morning because I know this wasn't what I was expecting when you dragged me out of bed." Kit said with a weary laugh and it was then she knew that she had officially lost it if she was laughing over anthrax.

"Where are you?" Reid asked ignoring the previous

"BAU, because of my history with the military I'm co-ordinating between everyone, doing everything and anything." Kit began before taking a deep breath, she couldn't do this and pretend everything was fine, not with him and where he was. "Jesus Spencer, why did you have to go and lock your self in a room with anthrax? Seriously, Spencer this may be the stupidest thing you have ever done…"

"Kit…"

"Don't do the Kit thing with me Reid, it won't work this time because this is serious. I'm dealing with military brass and their scientists and you have the hazmat team waiting to scrub you down once you finally come out of that damn room!"

"Katherine, it's going to be okay." Reid assured her.

She was freaking out and they both knew it, that's why he was calling her Katherine. To get her to calm down and focus because she wasn't good to anyone like this. They had to remain professional and not let their personal feelings get in the way but it was so hard not to. "How are you doing?"

"Been better…" Reid quipped.

"Tell me about it." Kit wearily replied until she was interrupted by one of the army soldiers tapping her shoulders and informing her that she was needed in the round conference room.

"You've got to go?" Reid figured.

"Yeah something's come up and I have to go check it out, but you'll be okay, right?" Kit questioned despite the fact that neither of them knew the answer to that question. But that was what hope was for, right? "Your going to come out of that damn room and do whatever it is hazmat need you to do and you'll be fine, because I c-can't do this without you Spencer…"

"Kit…"

"Reid I-I… I have to go." Kit said not being able to say the three words that she wanted to say, instead using the excuse that she was needed to go and moments later she and Reid bid their goodbyes and ended the call and Kit swallowed the massive lump in her throat; she was an complete and utter coward. Reid could die and she couldn't even bring herself to tell him that she loved him. Some girlfriend she was.

Things got worse, less than an hour after Kit got off the phone with Reid she got a phone call from Dr. Linda Kimura, it turns out Reid was very sick because the anthrax had got into his blood system and he was in respiratory distress and things were bad. Which just made things worse and made Kit realize that she should have told Reid she loved him when she had the chance. Thankfully everything somehow worked itself out. They caught the UnSub and stopped the anthrax attack, most importantly Reid was okay, They found the cure for that particular strain. "Agent Swanson…" Dr. Kimura began as Kit made her way into the hospital.

"He's okay, right? I know he called me to say he was fine but he likes to use his doctorates as a second opinion to downplay things but can you tell me for certain that he's okay." Kit questioned.

"Dr. Reid said you'd say that and yes he is going to be fine." Dr. Kimura assured her before pointing Kit in the direction of Reid's room and when Kit looked, she saw Reid sitting up in bed, with a smile and waving to her.

Before Kit had even gotten here she knew he was awake, she even spoken to him but when she walked into the room and saw Reid sitting up in bed really did it for Kit and before she knew it she was crying. "Hey Kit…"

Rushing over to the bed Kit leaned forward and kissed Reid as hard as she could before pulling away and looking Reid in the eye. But even then she couldn't stop crying and so instead she hugged him and sobbed into his shoulder. "Your okay, your really okay…" Kit kept repeating, for more her sake then Reid's.

"You already knew that I was Katherine." Reid replied pulling Kit away from him after a few minutes so he could look at her.

"I love you." Kit blurted out and normally she would have been shocked and embarrassed that she had blurted that out but she honestly didn't care anymore. Reid was okay and that was all that mattered to her. "I know it's been a few months but I can't help the way I feel… I love you Dr. Spencer Reid."

"Kit…"

"I wanted to tell you earlier when you called whilst I was at the BAU but I chickened out like a complete wuss…I-I was scared to tell you how I really felt because I didn't want it hurt more than it already did especially with everything that was going on. Then I got the call about you being even more sicker… the thought of me never seeing you again and not telling you how I felt was something I couldn't stand." Kit tearily admitted.

"You… you love me?" Reid squeaked as his face was burning red.

"Hard not to." Kit pointed out with a quiet sniffle and Reid shuffled over in the bed and Kit laid down next to him, with her head resting on his shoulder and the two of them sat or rather sat there in the silence in each other's arm.

"I love you too Katherine Marie Swanson." Reid admitted, so quietly than it was of a whisper than anything but he knew that Kit had heard it.

Kit beamed at the 'declaration' of some sorts and the fact that the one and only Dr. Spencer Reid, awkward yet loveable genius loved her until she realized what Reid had said and she slowly looked up and narrowed her eyes at him. "Who told you that my middle name was Marie?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets."


	26. Chapter 26

Reid came out of his bathroom and made his way back it his sitting room where Kit was sitting on the sofa who had busy occupying herself by reading Romeo and Juliet. As soon as she heard his footsteps she put her book down and glanced at him with a smile. "Enjoying it?"

"For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo." Kit quipped but the smile on her face didn't reach her eyes like it usually did and it faltered after a few seconds and Reid could kind of already tell that something was going on. "Reid… can you sit down? We need to talk."

According to Kit, the two of them had been together for six months as she didn't count the start of their relationship from the first time they slept together like some people, Kit stated that the start of their relationship began when she took him out on December 22nd and they had their first kiss. Reid went along with this considering that he knew nothing on relationships and had never been in one that had lasted this long. As clueless as he was when it come to women and relationship even Reid knew the words 'we need to talk' never meant anything good. "Kit are you breaking up with me?" he asked as he voice crackled with uncertainty.

"God no! Where on earth would you get an idea like that?" Kit demanded in shock at the statement that Reid had come out with and judging by her reaction Reid concluded that her breaking up with him was not the case."

"You said we need to talk." Reid informed her.

"Shit… I did say that and I can see why you totally freaked out and I admit they were the wrong words to use. But don't worry because I'm so not breaking up with, I would never do something like that…" Kit rambled in a rather frazzled manner.

"So what did you want to talk about then?" Reid asked.

"Us. You know I love you Spencer, right? As in head over heels in love with you…" Kit began and Reid nodded, he knew that Kit loved him and she told him often but he was still having trouble adjusting to the fact that a girl like Katherine Swanson; a beautiful, confident, tough, smart woman who had excellent hand-eye coordination was in love with him. "This last month since the anthrax incident I've been thinking and I think it's time that come out with our relationship."

Reid was stunned to say the least. "Kit you know what that'll mean… one of us will–"

"Have to transfer out of the BAU. I know, which is why it's going to be me." Kit announced and the both of them didn't say anything for a few moments as Reid was still processing the information. Not only did Kit want to go public with their relationship to the few people who didn't know about it but then she also wanted to leave the BAU because the bureau had rules about fraternization with other bureau employee's.

"N-No… Kit we can't, you can't leave the BAU." Reid stammered.

Kit smiled as she moved closer and stroked Reid's cheek with her thumb. "I love you. Simple as and I don't want us to hid anymore from the people we care about or the fact that we love each a secret. It's not right Spencer and it's bound to come out eventually and wouldn't you prefer it to come out on our terms than it be forced out?"

Reid knew Kit was making a valid point but that didn't mean that he had to like it. "Yes… b-but…"

"There's no but here handsome, I know we didn't think about this properly when we first got together and we both knew about this stupid rule that the bureau have… I guess that we just got so caught up in each other that we ignored it but we can't anymore. I didn't expect to fall in love when I transferred over to the BAU."

"Neither did I." Reid murmured. "But Kit you can't do this, I won't let you do this… I'll be the one to transfer out."

Kit surprised Reid by moving closer to him and giving him a light kiss before sitting back. "I love you for offering but I can't let you do that, I love you too much to let you risk your career and before you say anything about that I've just said I know you love me and you don't want me to do this but it for the best Spencer because you are without a doubt the most important person on the team which is why you have to stay there."

"How is it for the best Kit? Your important too." Reid sourly stated, he didn't like any of this in the slightest.

"Spencer Reid, you belong in the BAU. Without a doubt it's the unit that your are overly qualified for and if you left the team would not be the same, it couldn't function or work as well because you are irreplaceable to the BAU where as I am. Don't get me wrong I love the team and the BAU but I can be replaced and I can put into any other unit or division and I'll be fine. I've drifted from innocent images to hostage negotiations to the BAU and I'm the kind of agent who can do that whereas you can't so I have to be the one to do this." Kit assured him.

"I can't let you do this Kit."

"Yes you can Spencer and you will let me do this." Kit stated with a smile that reached her eyes and made Reid's stomach flutter and make him feel guilty all at the same time.

"Why would you do something like this?" Reid questioned.

"We could walk away from this, pretend like the last six months never happened that way we could stay on the team and no one would be none the wiser. But I don't forget or walk away. I want to stay with you Spencer…" Kit quietly said and Reid noted that her eyes were watering and she tried to cover it up by laughing softly.

Reid didn't say anything for a few minutes as he was still trying to process this information. "Kit I-I don't get what you're trying to say."

"W-what I'm trying to say here is that I'm not going anywhere Spencer, I'm serious about the two of us. I don't want to give you up ever, you mean more to me than my career. If me transferring out means we can stay together then I'll do it because I love you."

As much of a genius as Reid was, that statement completely threw him off balance. Kit knew about the schizophrenia, the drug use and all the other messed up stuff in his life and she wanted a future with him. It was obvious in the way her hand was brushing his cheek and the look in her eyes that she was being completely serious about this. "When do you want to do this?" Reid shakily asked.

"I'm going to Hotch tomorrow."


	27. Chapter 27

It was early in the BAU, most of the team hadn't come in yet as they were probably on their way except for Kit and Hotch who was holed up in his office. Kit had no particular reason to be there this early except for the fact that she had to talk to Hotch about this thing with her and Reid and she wanted to do in private and not while they were working. Reid had insisted on coming with her but Kit manage to convince him not to as the poor guy was freaking out about the whole thing. Getting up from her desk Kit made her way across the bullpen to the stairs that were just before Hotch's office and once she reached the door, she took a deep breath before knocking on the door. "Come in…"

Kit opened the door and walked in and Hotch put down the file that he was reading, no doubt the Reaper case which had been an obsession of some sort to Hotch ever since they had gone to Boston for that case. "Hey Hotch, can I talk to you about something? It's kind of important…"

"Sure, take a seat." Hotch said.

"I wanted to come to you and give you a heads up before Strauss find out, I didn't want her to blind sight you after everything you've done for me." Kit began as she slowly sat down in the chair.

"Okay. What's going on Kit?"

"I need to transfer out of the BAU." Kit announced before taking a deep breath, no amount of practising had prepared her for explaining to her boss that she needed to leave because she was involved with their team's resident genius. "It's not because of anything that's happened or because of the Robert Kessler thing but I'm doing this so you won't have to force me to leave."

"Force you to leave? Why would I force you to leave Kit? There's nothing in your performance that would suggest it…"

"Because I'm seeing someone on the team and the bureau has rules on fraternization and the moment you'd found out about something about this, you had have to make on of us transfer out. You're a good guy Hotch, which is why I'm here I didn't want to force your hand." Kit stated.

"It's Reid isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"How long has this been going on?"

"Six months, we didn't say anything because we didn't know how serious it was going to get and now that it is I'm going to do the right thing. I transfer out of the BAU and we don't have to hide anymore, it's not fair on either of us and it certainly isn't fair for us to keep it from everyone here."

"I admire you for coming here and telling me this in person Kit, does Reid know that you're here?"

Kit smiled and quietly laughed. "He knows and honestly he's not too happy about it. But he knows that this has to happen. Neither of us want this but this is where we are, one of us have to leave and he offered to go but I love him too much to let him to do that because this is where Reid is happy and where he belongs. If he leaves someday he may eventually resent me for that and I can't have that. The team will suffer more if I stay and he goes.

"You love him." Hotch noted.

"Yeah, it was the last thing I expected but I do." Kit said.

"Kit your giving up your place in the team for him, I have to ask if you're really sure about this?"

"Honestly no, I wish I could stay but the bureau won't allow it for some ridiculous reason. This whole month has been a challenge, two weeks ago Reid had anthrax and instead of falling apart over the possibility that my boyfriend was infected with a virus that at one point was killing him, I didn't let it affect me. I did my job and remained professional and did not let my feelings get in the way until after the case was over." Kit replied.

"I'll have to tell Strauss about this."

"I know."

"Does the director know about this?"

Kit bit her lip, she was certain that he knew in some manner of speaking considering what happened at the family dinner that Kit's mom kind of asked if she was dating someone at work. Kit suspected that her stepfather knew but was pretending that he didn't for both their sakes. "He knows that I'm seeing one but whether he knows it's Reid… I don't think he does."

Hotch nodded his head slowly. "Does anyone else know about the two of you."

"The rest of my family." Kit admitted.

"Do you have any preferences for where you'd like to be transferred? I assume that you'd want to stay here or go to the D.C. field office?" Hotch questioned.

"Anywhere's fine with me Hotch, if there's an opening and you think I'd be suited for it then go ahead I trust your judgment. I'm good anywhere, I adjust anywhere so maybe white collar or even back to CRU… or not. But like I said Hotch I can go anywhere–" Kit stated with a wearily smile before she was interrupted by JJ walking in.

"Hey Hotch… Kit, sorry to interrupt but we have a case and everyone else has just started to arrive." JJ told them.

"We'll be there in a minute JJ." Hotch replied and he waited until she had left and shut the door behind her to continue. "I'll talk to Strauss and see what I can do, from what I can tell and recall you and Reid haven't let your relationship effect work. But I can't promise anything Kit, Strauss may want to make you face the consequences of your actions."

"I understand completely Hotch." Kit said with a small nod, she wasn't expecting anything. She understood that she had broken the bureau's rules and if she was going to be punished for it then she's take it.

"If there was a chance that you could stay in the BAU I need to know now that you'd be willing to fight to stay here no matter what it took." Hotch asked.

"I would fight tooth and nail for this job." Kit replied.

"That's good to hear, now we should probably get going." Hotch said as he rose from his chair and Kit quickly followed suit.

"One more thing Hotch. Why aren't you mad? I was expecting for you to be furious and be yelling at me for being irresponsible and what not?" Kit questioned as Hotch was taking this more calmer than she could have ever expected. It was frankly rather weird.

There was the smallest hint of a crack of Hotch' face. "I would have been mad. If I had to find out about your relationship with Reid from someone else but what I've learnt about you Kit since you've joined the BAU is that honesty is a very integral part of who you are, you don't skate around the truth. You could have chose not to say anything to me and I would have been none the wiser but you came to me and told me the truth despite knowing what I have to do with this information. For that I have nothing but respect for you."

Wow. Who knew Hotch had so much respect for her? Kit certainly didn't. "Thank you."


	28. Chapter 28

Kit and Reid never got the chance to speak about her conversation with her Hotch and the fact that in a couple of days her transfer papers would be in the system. They also needed to talk about how they were going to tell the team as they were bound to notice when Kit left. But they never got the chance to leave because they got called to a case in Canada and they put aside their personal life together whenever they were working. When they got back from Canada they still didn't talk as they were exhausted and overwhelmed by everything that had gone on there and crashed at Reid's place. Four hours later they were called back into work because of a case where innocent civilians were getting killed by someone called L.C. Then her boyfriend had gone and got himself shot, which was just the icing cake as George Foyet had attacked Hotch so now both of them were in the hospital.

"Kit you go with Reid, we're going to Emily and Hotch and find out what we can." Morgan said and gave out a mock salute as she climbed into the ambulance where the paramedics had just loaded Reid onto a stretcher.

"No narcotics…" Reid said to the paramedic.

"Are you sure?"

"He said no narcotics, the good doctor is a masochist of some sorts." Kit joked in a wearily manner before taking a sigh, despite the fact that she was majorly pissed off with Reid she had to admire his determination to deter from any pain medication in order to stay clean.

"Kit…"

Ignoring her name for the obvious reasons that the two of them were still working and the fact that she'd rather not to the emotional sappy stuff at the moment, Kit moved the conversation to a different topic. "So what happened back there? We thought the unsub was going to show up at the school. Us along with S.W.A.T. were escorting all the kids onto the school bus until we got Emily's distress call."

"Figured out… that the unsub wanted Dr. Barton instead…. L.C means living children." Reid explained. "It means when a victim… may go on life support… has no DNR… but children."

"Okay… so if I'm following this correctly the unsub put L.C on the letter because he was going to kill Dr. Barton and leave his son Jeffery with no father." Kit slowly asked.

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you mention this thing about Hotch missing? You or Emily should have told the rest of us." Kit demanded.

"Emily was taking care of it… you all had to focus on the case. That was the important thing." Reid replied.

"God forbid the day that an UnSub ever managed to get a hold of me given who the hell is responsible for whatever happened to Hotch! We deserved to know Reid, regardless whether we were on a case or not! The fact that you don't think that the rest of us wouldn't be able to keep ourselves and our emotions in check when our section chief and fellow team member is in trouble is frankly very insulting." Kit retorted.

"I'm sorry…" Reid began.

"Shut up and stop talking." Kit said with a roll of her eyes and the two of them fell into a very awkward silence. When they arrived at the hospital Reid was dragged off somewhere by some doctors which left Kit time to defuse her temper. She wanted to kill Reid, it had been two weeks since the anthrax incident and he had just gone and got himself shot! It was like he was asking for trouble or had a target painted on his back. Pacing up and down the halls for god knows how long Kit could feel herself aging five years. The waiting was really getting to her and she was about to go to the nurses station and demand some information when her phone went off. "Swanson?"

"Hey it's me, how's Reid?" Rossi asked.

"Stable last time I checked, the wound was a through and through but the doctors are working on him so I won't know anything definitive until they are finished." Kit said before taking a deep breath. "How's Hotch?"

"Foyet stabbed him nine times but he's okay, awake and alert. Foyet tried going after Haley and Jack but we got there in time, the two of them are going into protective custody with the Marshalls."

"Geez… this has been one very long week Dave." Kit said with a sigh.

"You're telling me Kit." Rossi replied.

"Well I'm going to stay with the good doctor for a little while longer, I'll call you if anything changes if not I will probably see you back at the BAU." Kit said and after her and Rossi said their goodbye's she hung up the phone.

Twenty minutes later Kit got the news that she had been waiting for, the doctors told her that Reid was going to be okay and that he would have to be on crutches for a while. Which caused Kit to laugh for the first time in days, the genius who had no hand eye co-ordination was expected to go around on crutches? That was going to end well. Making her way to the hospital room Kit found Reid sitting up in bed, which only reminded her of the anthrax incident. "Hey…" Reid began.

"Hey…" Kit began looking around awkwardly as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "Got a call from Rossi a while back, Foyet did a real number on Hotch… Stabbed him nine times and tried to go after Haley and Jack, so the two of them have gone into protective custody with the Marshalls."

"Oh…"

"Yeah."

"I'm fine if you're wondering." Reid added.

"Forgive me if your word isn't taken at face value with me at the current time being." Kit snapped.

"It's not like I asked to be shot Katherine!" Reid retorted.

"Well you were Spencer! Less than three weeks ago you were in the hospital and your right back here again, do you have some kind of death wish? Because if you do I'd like it very much if you stopped because worrying about you dying is the last thing I needed given everything thing that is currently going on!" Kit hissed as she got up from the bed and walked straight back out of the hospital room.


	29. Chapter 29

Kit needed fresh air so she walked outside and took several deep breaths whilst wishing that she was a smoker because she actually felt like a cigarette as there was no way she could have a drink considering she was still on the clock. She really wanted to wrap her hands around Reid's neck and just shake it until there was some sense knocked into it. How could a genius be so damn stupid? It took Kit fifteen minutes before she finally calm down enough to go back to Reid's room and when she did she sat down on the chair instead of the bed. "I'm not apologizing."

"Neither am I."

Stubborn. That was another thing Kit could add on to the list of annoying traits about Reid along with the whole death wish thing. "When are the doctors discharging you?"

"Tomorrow."

"Good. You're coming home with me then." Kit replied

"B-But all my stuff is at my place."

Kit had to swallow the urge to shoot Reid in his other thigh, she had never found him to be so irritating in the entire time that she had known him. "Fine then, if you really don't want to stay with me at my apartment Reid then I will take back you to your place and I will stay with you every single day until I am convinced that you are fully capable of taking care of yourself without doing further harm to yourself!"

"Katherine." Reid began.

"No… we're not doing this here…" Kit replied with a shake of her head, the fact that the two of them were arguing and losing their tempers with each other was a sign of how things truly were. "Don't Katherine, or Kit me and don't even think about pulling the Katherine Marie Swanson card because it's not going to work. For a genius who can remember practically everything have you not learned anything from two weeks ago? Losing you or even the idea of losing you will kill me because I love you so much… and truthfully I like living quite a bit."

"I didn't mean to scare to you. The last thing I ever wanted was to upset you." Reid said and the look that he gave Kit made her almost forgive him. Almost. Those gorgeous chocolate puppy dog eyes of his may make her go weak at the knees but even they could not change what had happened today.

"You know I've started carrying writing stationary with me since the anthrax incident so you could always write letters to your mom and apparently I was right in doing so because you can't seem to stop getting into trouble Dr. Reid."

"Sorry."

Kit smiled before yawning. "It's fine, I know how important it is for you to write to your mom and it's sweet. I'd never do something like that if my mom didn't live twenty minutes away from my apartment. It's in my bag so I'll stop by later after work and I'll bring your go bag with me so you have some clothes…"

"Your exhausted." Reid noted.

"Four hours sleep will do that to you and I didn't get much sleep whilst we were on the previous case before this one. There have been a lot of things on mind last couple of days…"

Reid held out his hands to Kit and when she took it he gently pulled her towards him and she laid down next to him, with her head on his chest and careful of his leg. "How bad is it?"

"Depends on how you want to look at it." Kit admitted, as she knew Reid was referring to the whole announcing to Hotch about her relationship with him. It had been three days since she had told him and it was only know that her and Reid had gotten round to talking about it. "Hotch knows. His reaction wasn't what I expected… we talked about and I explained why I have to leave and he was generally good about the whole thing. He's going to try and see if I can stay in D.C. either at the field office or at Quantico, he's told Strauss about us…"

"Hmmm…" Reid murmured.

"I'm not too thrilled about that either but she had to be told and I'm guessing she'll probably want to speak to us both…"

"But?" Reid asked sensing Kit's hesitation.

"I don't know whether this is worth mentioning seeing as Hotch is going to be out for a while just like you but he said he'll talk to Strauss. Our relationship hasn't interfered with the team or work and there may be a possibility that I can stay in the BAU but Hotch said he can't promise anything and Strauss isn't exactly fond of our team. So I wouldn't put all my eggs in that happening…"

"Can't you have Jack–" Reid began.

"No." Kit bluntly stated. "Jack has no say in my career, I've never gone to him for help and I don't intend to. I got to where I am without his help and that's the way it's going to stay. If I let him help I'll just be proving what everyone thinks is true and that he's the one behind my career."

"I don't want you to leave." Kit murmured in agreement and the two of them fell into a peaceful silence and they just lay there and Kit was pretty certain that she was close to falling asleep until she heard a sharp intake of breath and the sound of giggling. Opening her eyes Kit saw Morgan, JJ and Emily all standing there with the smuggest looks on their face and Kit knew that she and Reid were busted.

"Care to explain?" JJ asked as she struggled not to laugh.

"Not really." Kit replied as she got up off the bed and as she did she found that her hand had somehow attached itself to Reid during the time that she was laying down. "What are you doing here?"

"Came to check on Reid and give you a ride back to the BAU." Emily informed them and Kit just nodded.

"So how you doing Reid?" Morgan asked.

"Fine."

"I would be too if had a beautiful woman curled up next to me." Morgan quipped, which caused Reid to blush and Kit to roll her eyes, she totally saw that one coming.

"It's not like it's anything new." Kit murmured to herself before realizing that she had said it louder than she intended to and now Morgan, Emily and JJ's eyes all kept darting from her to Reid with surprised looks on their faces

"The two of you?" JJ stated slowly and neither Reid nor Kit said anything because there wasn't anything to say about it. Either way it had come out so there was no point in denying it or confirming it.

"Way to go my man!" Morgan said as he slapped Reid's shoulder causing the boy genius to wince in pain.

Five minutes later Kit left with JJ and Emily whilst Morgan decided to hang back and stay with Reid for a little while longer and so the three women went back to the BAU. During the car journey none of them said much, Kit guessed that they were giving her space given what had happened today. When they got back to the BAU, Kit made a beeline straight to her desk to start her report and put a dent in Reid's large stack of paperwork considering he wasn't coming back to work anytime soon and her paperwork was menial compared to him. A few hours later when Kit decided to call it a night she decided to pop her head in to say goodnight before she left.

"Hey G…" Kit began but she stopped when she was that Garcia wasn't alone but with Emily and JJ. Before she could say anything JJ gently pulled her into the room and Emily shut the door behind them.

"So you and Reid, huh?" Emily began not wasting time and Kit had to look away so they wouldn't see her blush but then again she so totally should have seen this ambush coming, she did after all have two younger sisters.

"Seriously Kit? How could you not tell us that you've been jumping the good doctors bones?" Garcia demanded.

"Garcia, do you have to make it sound so dirty? You make me sound like some cougar pouncing on her toy boy." Kit said with a shake of her head, this was the exact kind of reaction she was expecting from Garcia when the news about her and Reid finally came out.

"You are older than Reid." JJ pointed out/

Kit snorted, she was seven months older than him so that didn't exactly make her a cougar as they were born in the same year. "Barely and you know what? I'm not ashamed to say that I am in a relationship with Dr. Spencer Reid."

"Whoa! Did you hear that?" Garcia asked turning to JJ and Emily.

"Why? What did I say?" Kit asked in confusion, as the three women in front of her seemed to be overjoyed at what she had just said for some reason.

"You said that you're in a relationship with Reid not that you were dating him, which means the two of you must be pretty serious for you to come out with that." JJ explained. "Just how long have the two of you been seeing with each other."

Kit sighed, they weren't going to like this next bit and she could already tell that they weren't going to take the news all that well. "Serious enough for me to be getting transferred out of the BAU in the next few weeks or months."

"What! You're leaving? You can't leave Goldilocks, this is your home! You belong here!" Garcia demanded.

"G, you know the rules. Bureau employees can't date other bureau employees, it's just the way things are." Kit admitted with a small shrug off her shoulder.

"B-But Kevin and I…"

"Work for different units which is why the bureau look the other way but Reid and I work on the same team. One of us has to leave and it's going to be me, my transfer has already gone into the system but I don't know how long it will take. Since we're down two profilers I may be around for few weeks at least until Reid and Hotch come back." Kit replied.

"I can pull the transfer out of the system and no one will ever know that it was there." Garcia rambled as she turned into her chair towards her computers.

Kit turned Garcia's chair back around and gave her friend a watery smile." G I love you for offering but won't change a thing as both Hotch and Strauss both know about Reid and I. This whole thing is inevitable and I knew that when I went to Hotch–"

"You went to Hotch and told him yourself?" JJ questioned and Kit nodded.

"We didn't want to keep it a secret anymore, we love each other and what is the point really if we have to keep it from everyone that we care about? This was the only way really…"

"Love…" Garcia stammered. "You love sweet cheeks?"

"Irrevocably it seems."

"Does he know?"

"Yes." Kit noted with a small smile.

"You love Reid enough to transfer out of the BAU and start somewhere new… wow, that may just be the most romantic thing I've ever heard." Emily stated.

"It's a shocker, I know… if this was anyone else I may have been able to walk away but it's Reid. I can't leave him for this job, I just can't. I'd love to stay and maybe Hotch can figure out a way for me to stay but if not, I have to leave. Twenty years from now I don't want to be all alone and think what if stayed with Reid instead of choosing my job over him?" Kit wearily stated with a shake of her head.

"We'll miss you Goldilocks, you and that beautiful smile of yours." Garcia tearfully told Kit.

"Hey no tears! It's not like I'm going far, I'll either be on another floor or at the D.C. field office and it's not like we'll stop hanging out. You guys are irreplaceable to me…"


	30. Chapter 30

"You sure you want to do this?" Kit asked sceptically as she slowly walked with Reid as they made their way up the pathway to her mother's house. Tonight was the night where Reid would meet her entire family for the first time as her boyfriend and not only was she terrified that they'd scare him off over dinner given how crazy they were but it had only been ten days since Reid had been shot and Kit would have preferred for him to be at his place where he was literally safe from any harm.

"I don't think your family are as bad as you make them out to be." Reid said.

Kit couldn't help but narrow her eyes. "They are worse trust me, you met them when we were in a middle of a huge family crisis so the eccentricities were carefully hidden by all the worries and concerns we were having because my baby brother was having brain surgery. Individually they are okay, occasionally annoying and complete oddballs but all seven of them together? And in the same room? Complete and utter chaos…"

"Does that include you considering you are apart of the family?" Reid quipped and Kit rolled her eyes before kissing his cheek and then opening the door and walking into the fancy foyer then proceeding to hold the door open for Reid to come in.

"Hey we're here! You can all stop pretending like you weren't watching us from the living room…" Kit called out and moments later Sammy and Lex came out from the family with smug grins on their faces. "I don't know whether to be shocked at this behaviour or not, although I would think that the two of you would have moved on to spying on me when I came home with a date."

The twins both ignored Kit in favour of Reid and Kit wasn't surprised, they had only met him once but they seemed to really like him. "Welcome Dr. Reid!" the two of them chimed together.

"Um… Hi Samantha and Alexander, it's good to see you again please call me Spencer, you don't have to call me Dr. Reid at all..." Reid awkwardly began and Kit just glared at her younger brother and sister.

"What did I tell you two? Tone it down otherwise you'll scare him!" Kit gently scolded before turning to Reid. "And handsome what did I tell you? Don't call the gruesome twosome Samantha and Alexander, you can call then Sam/Sammy or Alex/Lex but not Samantha and Alexander…"

"She's right." Lex said nodding in agreement.

"The only person who calls us that are the parents and by the parents we mean mom." Sammy said and as if on que Cornelia Flicker along with the rest of Kit's odd family walked into the foyer and various greetings were exchanged along with Cornelia insisting that Reid call them all by their first names instead of Mrs. Flicker, Director Flicker and General Swanson.

"It's so lovely to have you here Spencer, would you believe that this is the first time that Katherine has ever brought a boyfriend home." Cornelia said.

"For reasons like this mom, anyway not that you've done the introductions and embarrassed me can we move somewhere where Reid can sit down because as you've all noticed he's currently not at full mobility and should not be standing on his leg for so long." Kit replied.

"Oh yes, of course! Well the two of arrived just in the nick of time as we were about to start serving dinner!" Cornelia smiled and the family plus Reid all congregated into the dining room. With this being a fancy dinner planned by one Cornelia Flicker who loved throwing dinner parties there were of course assigned seats with fancy little name cards. Jack was at the head of the table and to his left was Cornelia followed by Reid, Sammy and Gabriel. To the right of him was Maddie then the General or Daniel as everyone who didn't call him dad addressed him by and next to him was Kit followed by Lex.

"This looks lovely Mrs.– I mean Cornelia." Reid began as Cornelia along with Kit, Sammy and Maddie brought the food in from the kitchen.

"Why thank you Spencer, when Katherine said that she was bring you–" Cornelia started.

"More like forced to–" Kit interrupted whilst pretending to cough which sent her and the rest of her siblings into a fit of giggles much to her father's and Jack's bemusement but her mother's annoyance. "Sorry, continue mom…"

"Like I was saying when I found out you were coming especially after your recent injury I thought that it was fitting to make a bigger effort than I usually would for our family dinner."

"I see your not having any wine Katherine." Cornelia noted.

"Driving, not to mention that I have a boyfriend whose having mobility issues and then I have work in the morning." Kit replied as she took a sip of her water but her mother chose to ignore her and poured Kit a small glass of red wine.

"So Spencer what exactly happened? All Kit told us was that you were shot in the line of duty–" Lex questioned.

"That was terrible to hear Spencer, I remember when Kit called to tell us what happened! I should have asked how your doing the moment you walked through the door. Have the doctors been helpful? Are managing with all of this because of an injury this serious you shouldn't be doing anything alone? I dread to think how you're even managing to do anything." Cornelia stated.

"Kit, she's been helping me with everything." Reid explained with a small smile much to the surprise of Cornelia.

"Don't look so surprised mommy dearest, I've been helping out as best I can because Reid does need help which is why I've been staying at his apartment. He needs someone to help him and it's easier for us to stay at his apartment then at mine as it has all things there to keep him entertained whilst I'm at work." Kit said.

"That's great and all Kit but I never got to hear what happened?" Lex demanded.

"I've told you twice Lex we can't talk about what happened as it is work stuff that is no concern for a eighteen year old boy with an overactive imagination. All you need to know was that Reid was shot and he's fine apart from the fact that he's on crutches for the foreseeable future."

"B-But dad knows what happened!" Lex whined. "He told us he read the report!"

This was the first that Kit had heard about this. "You know about the shooting Jack? You actually read the report into what happened?"

"I did." Jack replied.

"So what's happening in regards to work?" The general asked.

"I'm still transferring out but because Reid's out for obvious reasons and our unit chief is out too, the team that we're on as well as the unit is down two profilers so I've been told that I'm staying put until they both come back from medical leave so that gives me a few more weeks at the BAU"

"That's great." Gabriel said.

"Jack can't you do something?" Maddie asked.

"No I can't the bureau has rules about these kinds of things and even if I could I doubt your sister would allow me to. But I will say that I am proud of the fact that Katherine along with Spencer made the decision to come out with their relationship to their superiors full aware of what will happen, it shows you how much they value each other and their relationship." Jack stated and it caused Kit to beam.

"So Spencer tell us about yourself, Kit's spoken very highly about you." The general began. "Including your academic achievements which are very impressive for some one of your age. You and Katherine were born the same year and you have several doctorates and degrees whilst Kit has one degree."

"Geez dad, way to make me feel inadequate." Kit said in a deadpan tone.

"Don't' worry Kit-Kat I'm proud of you and your one degree it's that it's hard not to be impressed with everything that Spencer has achieved, your parents must be very proud of you."

Cornelia's eyes practically lit up and Kit knew what was coming next. "Why don't you tell us a bit about your parents?"

Reid look at Kit and she just smiled at him signalling that she would take care of him, she had warned him before hand that her mother would interrogate him as she was a nosy parker who liked to know everything. Kit knew he wasn't comfortable with discussing some things and preferred not to lie but Kit said that all he had to do was not to go into great lengths about things and she'd take care of the rest. "My dad is a lawyer and my mother is a college professor of 15th century literature, my dad left when I was a kid. But my mom was great, she' did everything for me and I practically learned everything I know from her by either self-directed reading or just listening to her read her favourite pieces of work, I grew with her reading me extracts of Chaucer and all the other greats…"

"Spencer…" Kit gently began as whilst she found his rambling cute she knew a lot of people didn't exactly appreciate it or follow most of the time. "Reid, you're rambling again!"

Reid couldn't help but blush a pale shade of pink. "Sorry I tend to do that a lot…"

"Don't be, your mother sounds like an amazing woman to learn from. Does she live here in D.C?" Cornelia questioned.

"Reid's mom still resides in Vegas which is where Reid is from and grew up and Mrs. Reid isn't really big on flying and with the hours we work it's hard to make time to see family if they don't live near but he does write her a letter every single day." Kit revealed.

"Spencer that is incredibly sweet of you, I wish one of my children could do something that nice for me without being asked or bribed with money." Cornelia said and Kit couldn't help but share a bemused look with Lex.

"But mommy you have the privilege of hearing it come straight out of our mouths!" Gabriel quipped.

"Hmm… I know, despite my best wishes for you all to be quiet for five minutes…" Cornelia retorted. "So Katherine, you've met Spencer's mother?"

"Not yet but Spencer has told me so much about her." Kit replied as she glanced over at Reid.

"But I want her too, I've told my mom all about Kit." Reid announced much to Kit's surprise and she took a large sip of her wine in order to process that information. It was one thing Reid meeting her family officially and having dinner with them after he had met her once before but her meeting his mother? It was mind blowing. The woman raised the genius that she was in love with, it was totally different that Reid meeting her weird family. "It's just that I can't travel long distances at the moment and I won't be cleared to fly for a couple more weeks so it's just me we're waiting on…"

The worst of it was over by then and the rest of dinner went in a rather peaceful manner with Reid talking to Lex and Sammy about college and his experience of college as a twelve year old. Then Kit watched as he talked with Jack, her dad and Gabe about history before talking to Maddie about what kind of medicine that she wanted to go in. After dinner had ended and things were winding down. The General had left to go home, then Maddie and Gabe left together as Maddie was crashing at Gabe's apartment for the night so he could drive her back to Baltimore in the morning in time for her classes. "Well we should be hitting the road too." Kit began.

"It was nice of you both to have me here tonight Director and Mrs. Flicker, dinner was great and you have a beautiful home." Reid said.

Kit made her way over to Lex after hugging her sister and kissed her baby brother on the cheek. "See ya Lex, if I'm in town next week I'll give you a call and you, Sammy and I will go for lunch."

"Your treat." Lex stated as if there was no room for argument.

"My treat." Kit replied with a small laugh before letting out a rather long yawn. "Forgive me, I have no idea where that came from.

"Sweetheart you are exhausted, maybe you should stay here tonight" Cornelia stated.

Kit shook her head. "It's fine mom, we're leaving to go home anyway so it's fine and besides I have work tomorrow and I can't and I won't leave Reid here in this nuthouse with the rest of you.

"Katherine you need to sleep now and I'm not letting leave this house and have you and Spencer get into an accident because you fell asleep at the wheel so no arguing Katherine Marie Swanson, you and Spencer are going to stay here tonight and when you go work tomorrow I will take Spencer home." Cornelia said going to into the whole worried mom mode and giving Kit her don't even argue with me so get your butt upstairs and into bed look.

"Fine, c'mon Reid I guess we're staying at Casa de Flicker for the night." Kit dismally said as she led him to the foyer and over to the staircase where she walked behind him as he slowly hobbled up the stairs. Once they finally got upstairs Kit led him to her childhood bedroom. "So this is us…"

"This was the bedroom you grew up in?" Reid asked as he sat down on the ebd looked around the room.

Kit snorted in amusement that was actually funny considering her bedroom looked just like it had come out of those home and lifestyle magazines considering her mother was an interior designer. "The room yes but not any of this, once I graduated college and could afford to move into my own apartment mom redecorated it. The only things from when I grew up are the photo's the film posters, the books and some of the trinkets…"

Moments later there was a knock on the door and seeing as Reid couldn't get up Kit went to the door and found her mother standing there with a pleased look on her face whilst holding a pile of clothes. "I took a t-shirt and pyjama bottoms from the set of clothes that Gabriel has in his bedroom for whenever he stays and I know that you have pyjamas in your room."

"Thanks mom." Kit replied

"Do I have to remind about the no having sex under my roof rule?" Cornelia asked loud enough for only Kit to hear thankfully otherwise Kit was certain that she would have died from embarrassment.

"So not funny mom!" Kit hissed.

"Now whose the uptight one? But I had a very nice time tonight Katherine, I'm glad you finally caved in and brought Spencer with you. He is a very nice–" Cornelia began.

"–Mom I love you but I swear to god if you say boy I will do something that won't like."

"I was going to say he is a very nice young man, not like the previous boyfriends you've had but I think that's why I like him so much as not only is he very smart and good looking but he has a job and it's clear that the two of you care about each other very much as your mother that is all I ever want from you; to be happy and some grandchildren."

Kit rolled her eyes in bemusement as she took the clothes from her mother. "Way too early to be having that conversation let alone thinking about it mom!"

"For you maybe but not for me." Cornelia argued back.

"Whatever mom, I will see you in the morning when those three large glasses of wine are out of your system." Kit said as started to make her way back into her room, her mom seriously improved with drink it was too bad that she always stopped after four glasses.

"I love you too Katherine and don't stay up too late, I want you and Spencer to get a good night's sleep and that means no sex!" Cornelia said as Kit walked into her way room and shut the door behind her.

"Problem?" Reid questioned.

There was no way Kit could tell Reid half of what her mother had just said, she already put him through enough by having him come to dinner. "She was just dropping off some pyjamas, their Gabe's but you two are similar in height so they should be fine plus she wanted to tell me that she approved of you wholeheartedly."

"Really?"

The fact that Reid seemed so surprised at this made Kit's heart melt, could her boyfriend get anymore adorable? "Yes she does, my mom loves you just like the rest of my family. Spencer Reid you have completely won over the entire Swanson-Flicker clan, problem is they'll never let you go…"


	31. Chapter 31

Spencer sat on a sofa in the living room of the Flicker house; it was just him and Kit's mother in the room as everyone else of the Swanson-Flicker family were at home. Originally Kit's mother was supposed to drop him off back at his apartment but instead Cornelia Flicker decided that the two of them should stay here in order to get to know each other better.

"You know Spencer, I may have said this already but you are the first boyfriend of Katherine's that I ever met, over the years she mentioned boyfriends in passing but never how she speaks about you. Katherine completely adores you and I can see why, which is why I was delighted when she said that she was bringing you home to meet us all." Cornelia began.

"S-She means a lot to me too."

"It's hard not to love her, despite the fact that over years she has driven me up the wall." Cornelia said with a small laugh. "I remember near the end of my pregnancy with her, I kept thinking I was in labour but it was Braxton hicks and I look down at my stomach and plead with her to give me some peace but she wouldn't."

"You ended up giving birth on base didn't you? Kit told me that about a mouth after we had met." Reid finished as recalled the morning after Kit forced him into staying over at her place because she was so worried about him.

"Yes I did, I should have taken that as a sign of how Kit would be… although it hit me not long after she was born and we were going to sign the birth certificate, Daniel and I were going to name her Serena after my favourite aunt and we were all set too but the look of disgust Katherine gave us was more than enough to change our mind. And since then she had been my brilliant, sweet and yet difficult eldest daughter…"

Reid frowned. "Difficult?"

"Not as in troublesome as Katherine was a well behaved child most of the time but she could be tricky and she still is. I'm sure you've noticed but when Katherine has her mind set on something then it's stuck. Then is no changing her mind or reasoning with her."

"I've noticed." Reid replied.

"It's a trait she gets from both me and Daniel, I remember a few days after the twins were born I had just put them down for a nap and when I came out of the nursery there Katherine was. She had been standing there watching and I noticed that she had a sad look in her eyes, I asked her what was wrong and she started crying…" Cornelia noted.

"About the General, right? She's mentioned it briefly, Kit said that she remembered thinking of how alone he was and she started crying and couldn't stop." Reid murmured.

Cornelia nodded. "Yes, she cried for hours on end without stopping, crying for her father and neither Jack, Gabriel or I could do anything to stop it. Jack and I were terrified she was going to dehydrate herself the way she was going so I called Daniel. He came and Katherine ran straight into his arms and cried for another before she stopped and turned to me and at ten years old she told me she wanted to stay with Daniel. My hormones were all over the place but I was adamant that she didn't go but she kept begging and pleading with me and I had no choice, I had to let her go and it broke my heart in doing so…"

"She loves you all very much, I think at the time she thought she was doing what was for the best." Reid added.

"There's no doubt about that Spencer. As dysfunctional as we all are Katherine loves her family, we're all very close which is one thing I'm grateful for. My children are thick as thieves always conspiring with each other, hiding out together whenever we have family events. They are my greatest achievement."

"What mother wouldn't be? You have five happy and healthy children, three who have graduated from ivy league college and then the twins are off to Harvard and Princeton soon." Reid said.

"Sometimes I wonder whether I gave birth to triplet because Katherine is so close with Samantha and Alexander, the three of them all hang out together and can't even go two days without speaking to each other. How Katherine is going to cope when the two of them leave for college, I dread to think…" Cornelia replied with a small chuckle.

"She loves them a lot." Reid said with a small nod remembering how Kit had brought her younger brother and sister brand new ipods in order to get them to talk to her. Then there was how upset Kit had been when Lex had been attacked and needed surgery,

"Always treating them and the twins get Katherine to take them to dinner at least twice a month because they know she'll pay, then after Jack and I give them their allowance she'll will always give them another additional $20, she thinks I don't know but I've been aware of it for years. I just chose not to say anything but it's something Katherine shares with the twins, she's a very good sister…"

"And daughter?" Reid quipped which caused Cornelia to smile, it was common knowledge that mother and daughter antagonised each but there was no denying that the two of them loved each other.

"Most of the time Katherine and I argue frequently about the way she lives her life, the choices she's made and her refusal to give me peace of my mind instead of me worrying about her all the time. Like when I found out she was graduating, I thought she was too young to be going to college even though it was Dartmouth and then when she told me she was joining the FBI. I tried talking her out of both things but like I've said Katherine is difficult but also brilliant and as much as I worry about her everyday I am incredibly proud of her, she'll be a great mother someday." Cornelia said.

"U-Um… yeah." Reid squeaked and he could feel his face turn read at the new subject conversation.

Cornelia couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry Spencer, I don't have my eyes set on Katherine… yet. I'm focusing on Gabriel and getting him to propose to his girlfriend. But all my children knew that grandchildren is not optional, it's mandatory…"


	32. Chapter 32

"Kit?"

"Sorry Hotch… I'm just surprised that all three of these units want me." Kit admitted as she took a deep breath, she had been called into a meeting with Hotch this morning regarding her imminent transfer out of the BAU given that both Reid and Hotch were now back at the BAU.˙ Despite being on medical leave Hotch somehow looked for a new unit for Kit to go to which is how she ended up here, surprised that not only did the innocent images unit want her back but she had job offers from the violent crimes unit in the D.C. field office but also major thefts.

"I don't know why your surprised Kit, you're a good agent with eight years of service to the bureau. You've done good work during your time here…" Hotch replied.

Kit wearily smiled. "So I pick one and go… When?"

"Next week but I need your decision by the end of the day so I get things moving with your transfer."

"Okay…" Kit said with a sigh and stood up before excusing herself and heading back to the bullpen. One week. Well technically not even a week as it was Monday and this time next week she'd be gone from the BAU and at another desk in another unit. Kit knew this had been coming but it was still kind of hard to process it all.

"Hey… How'd it go?" Morgan asked as Kit walked over to where he along with Reid and Emily were all sitting at their desks and sat on the edge of Reid's desk. Since the news of Kit and Reid's relationship became public, the news of the transfer soon followed and everyone knew it was only a matter of time. So when Kit got called into Hotch's office they knew it could only be about one thing.

"Okay I guess… I have to pick a new unit to transfer to as these next five days will be my last week at the BAU. Next week I'll be at the D.C. field office so…" Kit slowly said.

"Kit…" Emily began.

"It's fine, I knew this day was going to come eventually when I went to Hotch to tell him about me and Reid. We all knew that I got to stay a little but longer until Hotch came back from leave and now that he is I have to go. There's nothing we can do or say but just do me one favour, keep an eye on Reid. With us not being able to work together I'm going to be worrying him, a lot." Kit replied.

"Your seriously just going to accept this Kit?" Morgan questioned.

"I may not like any of this but I have to accept it Morgan, the bureau won't allow Reid and I to work together so I have to transfer out. But I've got all these great offers to work in different units and I won't be too far, besides it's all worth it." Kit stated as she glanced at Reid.

"I still feel incredibly bad about this." Reid stated.

"Reid… I've told you already, this was my choice and I made it because I want to be with you so I don't want to hear another word on the matter. Besides you should be feeling pretty great, you get to stay here in the BAU and you've got the girl." Kit pointed out with a small chuckle.

The four of them continued talking until JJ called them into the briefing room telling them that they had a case. So getting up they all made their way into the conference room where they were soon joined by Rossi and Hotch but then Chief Strauss, which was weird. But it was pretty obvious why she was there and everyone knew it was because of Kit and Reid but said nothing on the matter. "What do we have?" Hotch asked moving things along and JJ began handing out files before turning to the plasma.

"Three weeks ago twenty eight year old Brooke Mayer went missing from her home in Collinsville Illinois and last night her body was found in field that the local teenagers use to party." JJ explained as various images appeared on the plasma. "Upon the discovery and a search of the area, Collinsville police also discovered the remains of three other women who have yet to be identified. The three other bodies have been there between three to eight months and the police believe they could be Vivien Baker, Kelly Schuler and Gemma Tate, all who went missing in the last eight months."

"Cause of death?" Reid asked.

"Each of them stabbings, Brooke Mayer was stabbed twenty seven times." JJ revealed.

"Over kill…UnSub really wanted her dead." Kit dismally noted with a shake of her head. "I'm guessing it's safe to assume that the same person killed all four women… Is there any connection between the four women?"

"All four were local girls born and bred, same age and all went to the same high school, that's all we have so far…"

Ten minutes later the briefing was over and the team were grabbing their go bags in order to make their way over to the airstrip where the jet was waiting for them and Chief Strauss, who was accompanying them on this case much to Kit's irritation. "I can't believe she's coming with us…" Kit muttered under her breath as she grabbed hers and Reid's go bag seeing as the boy genius couldn't exactly carry them with his crutches,

"Kit, don't focus on it."

"Sort of hard not to… You do realize that she's here because of us? Although I don't really understand why she chooses now as I leave the BAU at the end of the week…" Kit replied with a shake of her head.

"Katherine…"

Kit smiled briefly. "Sorry, I'm being really weird… It's just that Strauss has known about us for months now and she never did anything about it until now. I really don't understand what's going on. But we have to be on our best behaviour Spencer, she's no doubt going to be watching us like a hawk…"

"There is nothing to worry about Kit, we've never let our relationship interfere with work before." Reid assured her.

"Yeah I'm fully aware of threat Reid but that was before Strauss decided to start breathing down our necks because of out relationship and we know she isn't exactly fond of the team…"


	33. Chapter 33

When the team arrived in Collinsville they all split and hit the ground running, Kit went to the medical examiner's office with Rossi, whilst Hotch and Morgan went to the site where all the bodies were found with the detective who requested their assistance with Emily leaving Reid and JJ to go to the Collinsville PD along with Chief Strauss to set up and begin on a geographical profile. Having Strauss coming along was the last thing Kit needed at the moment but there was nothing she could do about it as not only was Chief Strauss the section chief and could essentially end any of their careers but it was also Kit's last week at the BAU. Not matter how annoyed Kit was at Chief Strauss presence right now, she chose not to focus on it and let it affect her, she had a job to do plus once this week was over there was a good chance she'd never see Chief Strauss again.

"Kiddo?"

"Yeah, Rossi?"

"So are we going to talk about this?" Rossi asked Kit as the two of them walked back over to their car after finishing up with the medical examiner. He wasn't referring to what the medical examiner had told them but rather the fact that after this week Kit would no longer be working in the BAU and it was clear that he wasn't too happy about it. And Kit understood why Rossi wasn't receptive to the news, he had told her for years that this was where she belonged and she didn't want to leave but she had to.

Kit sighed. "There's nothing to talk about Rossi, someone has to leave the unit and there was no way it could be Reid. This team depends on him too much so it has to be me. It's the way things are, you know better most people the rules the bureau have on employee fraternisation. Reid and I can't work on the same team, let alone the same unit."

"Look Kit, I like Reid but putting him before you career? Is that wise? You belong here in the BAU and you know that as much as I do and I'm having a difficult time believing that your just going to walk away without a fight or at least considering your options." Rossi questioned.

"I have no more options Dave that's the thing, especially with Strauss sniffing around and being here with us. She isn't exactly fond of this team and with my relationship with Reid coming out in the open it's put us all under more scrutiny. I can deal with that as you know that there's always been a spotlight on my career and me because Jack is the director. But Reid? He wouldn't be able to deal with that and I don't want him or you and the rest of them team to deal with that when you've done nothing worth the scrutiny. I love being here but I need to do this Rossi."

"I can speak to Strauss–" Rossi began.

Kit shook her head. "Hotch tried already, which I should have told him not to. I came into this unit not wanting any special favours or to be treated any differently because of who I am and who I'm related to. Any other agent in my position would accept this inevitability and do what has to be done, so I am."

"Are you sure?" Rossi asked and the mood around the two of them changed, he was being deadly serious with her about it. In such few words he was asking her if she was a hundred percent sure of what she was doing and if she wasn't then it was okay not to do what she was doing. Rossi's genuine concern struck a chord with Kit as he had always been more than a colleague given that she had known him since she was a kid. David Rossi had always been there for her, always ready with advice and being someone who she could look up to and admire. He was a huge part of the reason why she had joined the FBI and the BAU.

"Reid's not perfect Rossi, I know that. He's socially awkward to put it lightly, he rambles constantly, sometimes speaks too fast and fixates on thing amongst many other things. I'm not perfect either. But he's perfect for me. I want to do this. Thirty years from now I don't want to look back and just see my career, I want something more than that and I want it with Reid. I love him. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think I had a future with him." Kit admitted, she knew that Reid was a recovering drug addict, that his dad had walked out on him and his schizophrenic murder after a childhood friend had been killed. Katherine Swanson knew Spencer Reid wasn't normal but she loved him wholeheartedly.

"I'll ask you again, are you sure about this Katherine?"

"Yes I am." Kit firmly replied and Rossi nodded, a clear sign that he had accepted her decision and giving her a small smile, the two of them climbed back into the car.

"Any idea where you're going to go?" Rossi asked.

"No idea. Innocent images want me back and I've had offers from both violent crimes and major thefts units so I won't be at Quantico but I'll be at the D.C. field office. I've got to make a decision soon as I have to tell Hotch by the end of the day." Kit shook her head as she climbed into the driver's side of the car, shutting the door behind her and proceeding to switch on the engine.

"What does Reid think?"

"He feels bad about it all despite the fact I've told Reid that he shouldn't, I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself. We both had time to prepare that I would have to leave but we never actually talked about where I'd go in detail and by the looks of it we won't have the time to. Whatever I decide Reid will respect my decision." Kit quietly said.

"I'll miss you."

Fifteen minutes later Kit and Rossi arrived at Collinsville PD to find Reid still busy at work on a map, Emily and JJ had just finished talking to some of the local cops and Chief Strauss was sitting down just silently watching them. Moments after Kit and Rossi walked into the room that the team had set up in Hotch, Morgan and the Chief of Police who had called them in, walked in behind them. "Learn anything about where the bodies were found?" Emily asked.

Hotch shook his head. "Well we already knew that it was the dump site and that the victims were probably killed somewhere else. The field is pretty remote and off the main roads so it would be quite easy for the UnSub to dispose of several bodies without anyone seeing them."

"But you said it was a popular place, right Chief Hartley? So this field is pretty well known in town." Kit questioned picking up on something that JJ had mentioned during their briefing.

"It is, the kids all go there to party." Chief Hartley replied.

"Well it suggests that the UnSub is a local, they knew the area well enough to bury several bodies without anyone noticing." Morgan began. "What about you two? You get anything for the medical examiner?"

"Confirmed that the bodies found are indeed Brooke Mayer, Vivien Baker, Kelly Schuler and Gemma Tate. Medical examiner found no signs of sexual assault but traces of chloroform in each victims body and he believes that each victim was conscious when the stabbings began but eventually lost consciousness."

Kit looked at Rossi before finishing off where he left off. "Interesting thing is that each victim was a stabbed a different about of times and with each victim the number got higher. The first victim Kelly Schuler was stabbed 8 times, Vivien Baker 15 times, Gemma Tate 22 times and finally Brooke Mayer who we know was stabbed 27 times with the same serrated knife. "

"UnSub is escalating with each victim." Emily summarised.

"That's safe to assume." JJ replied.

"You know we could we could be looking at a female UnSub here given that there are no signs of sexual trauma and the attacks seem very personal, plus it could explain why the victims were all drugged with chloroform. UnSub couldn't overpower them so she drugs the victims." Kit said tossing that idea into the mix, her and Rossi had been discussing that theory on the way back from the medial examiners office and it seemed plausible.

"A female? You think a female is capable of doing all this?" Chief Hartley asked in disbelief."

"Quite possibly. Female serial killers are a very fascinating field. We don't have much information on them, but what we do know involves throwing the rules completely out the window. Take the signature, for instance. They don't torture or take trophies, take this case for example given that the amount of times the victim was stabbed variants with each victim we can't class that as the victims signature." Reid explained.

"It's just apart of their mo, right"

"Well the drugging and stabbing part." Rossi added.

"So do you think the UnSub is done or there are more victims out there?" Chief Hartley questioned.

"Like I've said with female serial killers, you kind of have to toss out the rules some female serial killers have a specific number of victims in mind but historically female serial killers have had victims in the hundreds. One of the ost infamous female serial killers dates back to the 17th century, Countess Erzsébet Báthory de Ecsed commonly known as the Bloody Countess was from the noble family of Báthory but history refers to her as the most prolific serial killer. There is no actual number of victims as she was convicted of torturing and killing 80 girls but it's speculated that her victim count could have been a high as 650 although there is no real proof to supporter that number–" Reid explained in an extremely fast manner which confused Chief Hartley in several ways firstly becomes over the overwhelming amount of information and the speed at which Reid had told him.

"Dr. Reid, I think Chief Hartley gets the point." Chief Strauss said and Kit just focused on the crime scene photos on the board to stop herself from laughing. She liked Reid's rambling very much, it was very sweet and quite attractive.

"You know we can also apply the drugging theory to a man whose physically incapable of restraining the victims." Morgan offered.

"True." Kit agreed.

"Any connection between the victims?" Hotch asked moving things along.

"Different jobs and they live in separate areas but from what we've found out, they all attended Collinsville High School and have remained friends ever since. Bank statements show that they dined out together and Garcia said that their phone records show numerous calls to each other up until the first disappearance." JJ explained.

"We didn't realize that the girls were missing, each one had sent a message to their parents saying they were taking off for a couple of days. After not hearing anything the parents came in and reported their daughters as missing." Chief Hartley wearily said.

"You wouldn't have Chief, each victim was supposedly out of town when they disappeared, case would have gone to the local PD of the towns they were supposedly at. No one would have made the connection between the disappearance until now." Kit assured him.

"These girls were all local girls, born and bred. Grew up together, went to all the same schools until they left for college and then came back. Someone here knows something and maybe who killed them." JJ said.

"We'll each take a victim, talk to co-workers, friend and family and figure try and figure out why they were targeted, look each separately and all four of them as a group…"

"Hotch, you mind if I take the High School? I have a hunch, there's always a couple of teachers who remember everything and everyone. Figured I could get something out of that." Kit asked.

"Do what you have to do."


	34. Chapter 34

Kit walked down the hallways of Collinsville high school with Morgan for company, she had some sort of epiphany in regards to all the victims and getting some information on them. Not Garcia could use her computers to gather information about the victims' social media, finances and whether or not they were on medication or seeing a psychiatrist. However there were something's that a computer couldn't give you, they couldn't tell you about a person or who they were in the past. Except maybe if you were looking at a unsealed juvenile record. That kind of information you had to get from people who knew the victims and the kind of information Kit was looking for, she knew she couldn't ask from grieving families. So she had to think outside the box, which brought them to the local high school.

"So any thought to where you're going to be transferring to?" Morgan asked as him and Kit made their way to the school office.

"Not a clue and as the day goes on I get even more unsure, I think I'm just going to end up writing all my choices on to a small piece of paper and put them into a hat and randomly pull one out. I'm not really fussed about where I'm going, I did say that I didn't want to go back to crisis negotiation but the more I think about it, the more appealing it sounds." Kit began before letting out a small chuckle. "Jeez I am such a glutton for punishment, I got given crap at crisis negotiation and yet I am tempted to go back there and have men undermine my abilities as a negotiator just because I'm a woman. I must really love Reid if I'm prepared to do all that…"

"Kit…" Morgan.

"Derek you don't have to tell me that I am making a huge decision and sacrificing my career to be with Reid because I know that. But this is the only way for everything to be okay and I'm coming to terms with that. Reid's not happy about what I'm doing and neither is Rossi, he thinks I've lost my mind doing what I'm doing and he doesn't really understand why I'm doing it. Then he is the man whose been divorced three times. But I think apart of him is dealing with it, he knows I'll be okay wherever I go." Kit stated and Morgan placed an affectionate hand on her shoulder.

"I know you will be Kit, I just wish things didn't have to be this way as you are just as valuable to this team as the rest of us." Morgan replied.

"I don't know about that…" Kit began before stopping in her step and looking at Morgan. "Take care of him, I know I don't actually have to ask you this as I know you will but that genius boyfriend of mine has this infuriating habit of getting into trouble. Spencer's gone through so much already even before he met me and not being able to keep one eye on him whilst at work is going to drive me insane. I just need to know that he'll be okay with me not in the BAU anymore…"

"Katherine nothing is going to happen to Reid, I'll make that pretty boy stays out of trouble." Morgan assured her and Kit couldn't help but smile.

"Good, can't marry him if I have to wrap him up in a plastic bubble. Might make things a tad bit awkward…" Kit said and it took her a moment to realize what she had just said and she couldn't quite believe what had just come out of her mouth. Kit had just mentioned marrying Reid to Morgan which was kind of a big no, as whilst she was leaving the BAU to be with him and have a future with Reid, marriage was something that wasn't anywhere on the table at the moment. Kit didn't even know where her career was, she didn't even know where her job would be next week.

"So your thinking of making an honest man out of Dr. Reid and having little Baby Genius' running around and tripping up all over the place?" Morgan asked and Kit could feel her cheeks burning slightly, that picture Morgan had just painted sounded really nice. The kids part especially as Kit had grown up with her crazy family and she adored them all and having a family of her own was definitely something that she wanted. Thinking about her and Reid having kids made her laugh as whilst they would probably be little genius' like their father, the kids would end up with her side of the family's loud, eccentric and exhausting traits. Then the lack of hand eye co-ordination

"I wouldn't get too far ahead but Reid and I are pretty serious about each other, I wouldn't be transferring out if I didn't think that our relationship was worth it It's all nice thinking about the future but really when I'm with Reid all I tend to think about is the present..." Kit quietly said.

"Can I ask you something Kit? Why Reid?" Morgan began and Kit couldn't help but frown at the question. "I don't mean it like that because you know I love Reid–"

"I get it Morgan and it's a question that I've been asked a lot and my answer is why not Reid? He's not like previous guys I've dated and I guess that's part of why we work so much. I know Reid is awkward to put it lightly but I find that be very endearing and sweet. Reid is always rambling and sprouting off information and it can be very annoying at times but we wouldn't be able to do our job without Reid knowing everything he does and he teaches me something new everyday. I know he has a past and some of it isn't pretty but no one is perfect and the way he looks at me Morgan and how he makes me feel is like nothing I have ever had before. Reid accepts me for who I am along with my dysfunctional family and he gets how important they are to me. For some reason Reid thinks that he doesn't deserve me when really it's me who doesn't deserve him…" Kit explained.

"You really do love him, don't you?" Morgan asked.

"Never saw it coming…" Kit admitted before deciding to change the subject as they had a case to focus on and given that this was Kit's last case with the BAU she wanted to make sure they caught the UnSub. "It feels weird walking down these hallways, kind of makes me reminiscent of my high school days."

"That bad?" Morgan guessed.

"I wouldn't say bad as it could have been worst but high school was a bit of a mixed experience to me, I was thirteen years old and fresh back from Japan and suddenly I was starting the tenth grade. It was very weird as I had grown accustomed to Japanese culture and it took a while to adjust. Most of my old friends were around but they were still in middle school so I had to do the whole making new friends things, however given my dad being around so much I was used to it. But I did feel like I lost part of my childhood in a way as I was doing the SAT's when I was fifteen and then going on college visits. I don't regret any of it but sometimes I wished that period in my time hadn't been so chaotic and seemingly rushed… What about you Morgan?" Kit asked.

"Wasn't easy at first but it started getting easy when I started hitting the gym and then made the football team. Speaking of high school what brings us here?"

"I'm glad you asked, someone here is killing these women and there has to be a reason why and we know that the victims are all connected. I'm pretty certain that the UnSub knew them too, all the victims were local girls born and bred went to the same school."

"And what? You think that the UnSub went to school with them?" Morgan questioned.

"Maybe. I don't know but I think that if we take a close look at all the victims we'll find our UnSub, some reason that group of girls were all killed and the fact that they've been friends since high school isn't a coincidence. You heard JJ say how they split up to go to college but then returned home and soon enough the killings began. I think it's all connected Morgan so I want to start from the beginning where they met; I want to find out everything about these group of girls. Families and close friend will be too caught up in what happened to tell us what we really want to hear, they'll instinctively want to protect the their loved one. So I figured why not talk to the teachers? There is bound to be someone here who remembers all four of them and provide us with some information."


End file.
